What if you lived in Australia?

[VintagePornLuv]

This could make me live in Australia. I could forget all the deadly animals for Margot Robbie I think.

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by blondifan

31 women have been killed as a result of domestic violence in Australia, since January 1 2015.

12 weeks 31 women.

When will we treat this like a national emergency?

Is that a lot, in a nation of 23 million?

Australia's homicide rate is very, very low -- and falling steadily. Aussies aren't immune to stupidity, get drunk, get violent, do some bloody business: but they do it much less often than other folks.

That was one of the things that surprised me about Australia-- for a place that prides itself on a rough image, people are more consistently civilized and decent to their fellow mate & sheila than they imagine.

I looked up some stats, and it turns out that, curiously, Australians express more fear of crime than Americans-- but actually have much violent crime than we do. The one exception is rape, where Oz has slightly more than the US (all number as rate per 100,000)

See a comparison of the data here:
http://www.nationmaster.com/country-...d-States/Crime

[palo5]

Originally Posted by VintagePornLuv

This could make me live in Australia. I could forget all the deadly animals for Margot Robbie I think.

hmmm -- don't you learn to look at the eyes and not be fooled by dental cosmetics?

[SanteeFats]

Okay I know some of you like your roos but I think this is a little overboard.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

Is that a lot, in a nation of 23 million?

No, it isn't. Australia has a low murder rate, 1:100.000 per year

Not to be cynical, but statistically nearly every nation on earth dreams of "social failures" like that -- even Norway and Finland

[andw]

Originally Posted by SanteeFats

...the wrong "animal" has the shackles.

[andw]

Speaking of bushfires... okay so not usually at this time of year in Oz but I hear Siberia has had a few bad ones.

We might need to send some water bombers to palo5, though our helicopters-with-water-tubs might not be as big as a modified Ilyushin (IL-76TD?)

http://anonym.to/?http://en.wikipedi...6D_of_IRGC.jpg

[jerquer]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-1...st-car/6388816

A group of European documentary film-makers will soon set out from Perth to cross the country in what could be the world's most notoriously unreliable car - a Communist-era East German Trabant.


Their Top-Gear style antics will be captured in a documentary film to be shown across eastern and central Europe.


The Czech, Polish and Slovakian car enthusiasts have already completed epic road adventures across central Asia, South America and South Africa and are now preparing to conquer 20,000 kilometres of harsh conditions in Australia and South East Asia.


What makes their transcontinental treks remarkable is that they are completed in a Soviet-era Trabants, an East German vehicle many consider to be the worst car ever made.


The Trabant is the cheapest car in Eastern Europe and the whole body of the car is made from plastic so it cannot rust.


The team's leader, Czech Dan Priban said the Trabant was is the laughing stock of the car world - but that is precisely why his team loved it.


"It's a very small car - it has a two-stroke engine. It sounds like old motorbike so it's very, very weak. It's [the] most horrific car in Eastern Europe and we love it!"


Since 2007 the antics of Priban and his team have featured in several documentaries, gaining them a cult following in central and eastern Europe.
"In South America we got a deal with Czech television and made a TV series —some compare [it] with Top Gear but [with a] very, very, very low budget," Priban said.


"People in Slovakia love it, and some people in Poland. People in Germany know about us. In our small countries people like it and people love it."
Over the next four months Priban and his drivers hope to drive their two yellow Trabants, a Polish Maluch and some motorbikes 20,000 kms across Australia, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
However the team have already hit one hurdle ahead of their departure from Perth — Australian customs and quarantine.


"There is a lot [of] bureaucracy. We [have shipped] cars to Africa, shipped cars to South America and every time there's a problem in the port. But in Australia everything [is] very, very, very slow," Priban said.
The drivers hope to eventually depart Perth in the next week,

driving across the country to Sydney and then up to Darwin.


Mr Priban is already making a preemptive plea to Australians for early roadside assistance.


"When somebody in Australia will see the funny yellow cars, stuck in the middle of the road please help us —because we can get stuck anywhere."

[blondifan]

Originally Posted by jerquer

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-1...st-car/6388816

Image the turbulence you'd encounter confronting a road train somewhere on the nullabor

[Motorboater]

Drove 280kms from Melbourne to Deniliquin today to participate in car club driving competitions. Only to get to the track gates and find that due persistent rain making the dirt grounds vulnerable to being torn up by 40 cars tearing it up, the meeting had been cancelled/postponed.

560km round trip for nothing. Thank you very much.