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Your video, Cowboy prank in Brisbane city, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 153 Badge!

Yep. What he said. I lived in Brisbane for 2+ years, 1992. Friendliest, kindest people I've ever seen, they seem to go out of their way to make you feel welcome. That's saying a lot - I'm Canadian. From time to time enjoyed convincing traveling Americans that 'Seppo' was a term of endearment, reserved just for them, and which they quickly adopted, proudly proclaiming to their fellow American travelers that "Yes, I'm a Seppo! We're all Seppo's". Kind of says it all.

It was a practice run in Brisbane for some festival that is held along the river. Notices were sent out in advance.

*quality
*downunder
I had no idea that Grant William McLennan died at his Brisbane home on 6 May 2006, aged 48, from a heart attack.

The camper van we rented in Brisbane to drive to Darwin had a bull bar and a downward deflecting heavy screen just along the bottom of the windshield. We wondered why until we got to the other side of Longreach and saw the aftermath of a big red kangaroo going through the windshield of a panel van, still alive and kicking - kicking enough in its panic to kill the driver as it thrashed about trying to get away from it's predicament. The down angled heavy screen is to 'deflect' the road vermin down away from the cab and windshield. Not as much fun as hitting a moose, but fun nontheless.

Sure looked like Nutella... years ago, started a post-doc at UQ in Brisbane, temporarily rooming at Gatton College. 1st morning, jet lagged at breakfast in dining hall, lathered it on white toast and laid into it. Managed to keep it down, but the gag reflex was winning. Students howled, all in good fun though. When I checked out 2 weeks later, they gave me a gift of a giant jar of it and a homemade booklet "How to Eat Vegemite"... good memories, but could never stomach it again.

In terms of the Brisbane G20 summit referenced in this video, very little came out in favour of coal The G20 Leaders Communique came out saying that Gas is an increasingly important energy source, that the G20 reaffirms its committment to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.

The petition above has 2498 signatures out of its goal of 4000.

The Grauniad saw it like this - http://goo.gl/lnU8mC (well, First Dog on the Moon saw it like that, he also had one on coal powered electicity generation - http://goo.gl/MbNMfO ).

Mr. Abbott is left looking very out of touch and stuck in the past after lobbying to keep climate change out of the leaders communique, and then two days before the summit the U.S. and China came out with a joint announcement promising action on CO₂ emissions - http://goo.gl/MvG1I5

*downunder

Lived in Ontario (28 years), Brisbane, Australia (5 years), Alberta (7 years), and now Texas (14 years).

Agree with pretty much with Boneremake on Alberta, gets more points than Ontario. My Australian experience was good, in both the city and rural (blew an eardrum due to infection in Longreach QLD at Xmas... the doctor was drunk when they wheeled him into emerg, but he was a gentle, caring drunk).

Small things in Ontario are manageable - anything requiring stuff beyond typical emergency room patching up in more rural locations (my definition - anywhere far enough from Toronto that you can't see the nighttime glow, so north of Newfenmarket sort of) is quite lacking (v. long wait times for things like weekly dialysis, MRI, even open MRI, GI tract scoping, ultrasounds, contrast X-rays etc). Parental unit #1 with diabetes requiring 3 times a week dialysis almost snuffed it as there were only 4 chairs in the unit 14 miles from home, got on the list and had to wait for someone to die before getting on the team. Finally snuffed it when they shut down these 4 chairs and the new unit was now a 90 mile round trip 3 times a week for man who could barely walk or see. Died from exhaustion, not diabetes. 2nd parental unit needs an MRI for some serious GI issues, can't keep food down, losing weight rapidly. Wait 4.5 months and we'll see if we can get you in. I'm having her measured for the box.

Having said that, the situation is easier to describe in Texas, the land of excess (excessive wealth and excessive poverty).

Good health insurance plan, preferably through employer with lots of employees = wait times for advanced procedures measured usually in minutes or hours, sometimes days, but not weeks or months. You get taken care of, and your birthing room at the local maternity ward looks like the Marriott (just Couryard though, so no mini-bar or microwave).

Mediocre or no health insurance plan = pray you never get sick enough to require more than what you can buy at the CVS or splint up by watching do-it-yourself first aid videos on youtube, because an unplanned night in the hospital or a trip to emerg in the short bus with swirly lights followed by admission can, for many, wipe them out or sure eat up Bobby's college fund. No exaggeration. I have insurance, but for a reference point, one night in hospital (elective) for a turbinectomy (google it people) including jello and ice cream came in at $14,635. Yes, one night. 24 hours. Do the math. An emergency room visit for a forearm cut requiring 13 stitches (and I didn't even bleed on their white sheets - just cut through the skin to the fat tissue) was billed at $2,300 bucks. Our new baby tried to exit the meatbag as a footling breach, so emergency C-sectioned him out, and one extra night in hospital (2 in total) - all up, billed at just shy of $24K. We now have 3 full service hospitals within 5 miles of our house, and a full service children's hospital in the same radius. And they just started building another. Somebody's making money. If you don't have insurance, or your insurance is shitty (huge deductibles, huge copays) you will eat much of these types of costs. Rule: cheaper to die than get sick.

Ontario and AB might have longer wait times, but even an 83 year old woman in a rural Ontario village with no pension, insurance, income or large stacks of cash can (eventually) get the health care she needs without spending unjustifiable amounts of money. Happy birthday mom.

My 2¢

Your video, CCTV footage of Brisbane gunman's mall siege, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

These guys are from Brisbane here in Aus.

It's only 12,000kms from your place to Sydney or Brisbane, you're practically next door. An L.A. stopover on the way sounds plausible though.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Just tried to submit this - of course it's already here. I think the heat of Brisbane fries the brain. *promote

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

*promote. Rumour has it that Apple's new Siri voice recognition will be at least partially this good. The announcement is tomorrow - and I have to say I'm more excited by this than any new hardware. It's supposed to be integrated with Wolfram Alpha, which is a website that I love. Being able to say "what's the difference in population between Brisbane and Canberra" and get a good answer, would be pretty cool.

I can be the counterbalance since I still pass for being in high school

Will try to make it down from Brisbane work permitting.>> ^spoco2:

@kymbos, looks very nice, and it's about a block and a half from where I'm currently sitting
I'm seeing a front-runner already, what with the family tie and everything Two different options too, in the upstairs area or the downstairs.
Now all we need is more Aussies to put their hands up that they'll be there. As it stands it's going to be 3 aging men looking uncomfortable amongst the trendy of Melbourne