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    Out in the Shed with Ted.

Ted McEvoy.

This page is brought to you compliments of the Kedron Wavell Services Club, Brisbane’s superior Club.

Pension Rates:

Here are the pension rates for those eligible, effective from the 20th March 2017 and which will apply until adjusted again on the 20th September 2017.

Carer Allowance until 31 December 2017 is $124.70

Mental health support for the ADF

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) provides mental health support for current and former ADF personnel. It comes under the Non-Liability Health Care program and covers treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and alcohol and substance use disorders. Treatment is available to anyone who has served one day as a full-time member of the ADF and funding for your treatment is demand driven and not capped.

Importantly, a diagnosis is not required at the time of applying for mental health support, and you do not need to prove the condition is the result of your service.

Complete the Application for Health Care for Certain Mental Health Conditions which you can find HERE. Complete the form and sent it to DVA, GPO  Box  9998, in your capital city. If you have any queries, call DVA on 133 254 or 1800 555 254 if you live in the bush.

Depending on your type of service, treatment for malignant cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis is also available under Non-Liability Health Care but you will need to have been formally diagnosed before making an application.

The Australia’s Vietnam War website.

The Australia’s Vietnam War website has recently been upgraded. New features include:

• Several new articles

• Honour Roll: Photographs, biographical sketches and brief service histories of the 521 Australians who lost their lives during the campaign

• Improved filtering by unit and sub-unit

• Unit/sub-unit tracking. Follow a unit or sub-unit by jumping chronologically through their contacts with the enemy

• Place a poppy against the name of Australians who lost their lives or remember your mates by writing a brief personal tribute against their name.

Visit the website at  https://vietnam.unsw.adfa.edu.au

What is J walking.

In Australia, it is illegal to start crossing the road at an intersection when a pedestrian light is red or flashing red. If no such pedestrian light exists, the traffic lights are used, making it illegal to proceed on red or orange. Furthermore, it is illegal to cross any road within 20m of an intersection with pedestrian lights or within 20m of any pedestrian crossing (including a zebra crossing, school crossing, or any other pedestrian crossing).

However, laws against jaywalking are rarely enforced, with the exception of the occasional police "blitz" on jaywalking for a week or so at a time, when the laws are enforced more stringently. Some roads with a record of pedestrian accidents feature fences in the centre to discourage pedestrians, but there is no law against traversing them.

But!! – where did the term come from?

The word jaywalk is a compound word derived from the word jay, which was a "curse" word which originated in the early 1900s and meant an inexperienced person and walk. No historical evidence supports an alternative folk etymology by which the word is traced to the letter "J" (characterizing the route a jaywalker might follow).

In towns in the American Midwest in the early 20th century, "jay" was a synonym for "rube", a pejorative term for a rural resident, assumed by many urbanites to be stupid, slightly unintelligent, or perhaps simply naïve. Such a person did not know to keep out of the way of other pedestrians and speeding automobiles. Originally, the legal rule was that "all persons have an equal right in the highway, and that in exercising the right each shall take due care not to injure other users of the way."

A newspaper article introduced the term to readers in the town of Grants Pass, in Oregon, USA in 1913. It read:

"A campaign of ridicule directed toward the extermination of the "Jay Walker Family" was inaugurated today by the local automobile club. The "Jay Walker Family" is composed of those pedestrians who cross congested streets without first looking to see if it is safe to do so. The local automobile club today adopted resolutions suggesting propaganda to be distributed all over the country to "kill off the Jay Walker Family."

It seems the term first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1917. The term's dissemination was due, in part, to a deliberate effort by promoters of cars, such as local auto clubs and dealers, to redefine streets as places where pedestrians do not belong.

In time, streets became the province of motorized traffic, both practically and legally.

War Widow Pension.

You may have read reports in the media about some widows claiming to have lost their War Widows pension because of recent changes to the assets test.

Those reports are inaccurate.

The facts are that the War Widows pension is not means tested and is not affected by changes to the assets test which came into effect on 1 January 2017 and therefore it is not possible for a widow to lose their War Widows pension because of the recent changes. (Please also note that the changes to asset testing is a Government initiative, not DVA).

However, some War Widows may have been affected by the changes, specifically those widows in receipt of a supplementary pension, which may have been affected as a result of the changes to the assets test.

By way of explanation, some widows were offered and elected to receive a lump sum compensation payment instead of an ongoing War Widows pension (this being dependent upon which Parliamentary Act was involved at the time of application). Such widows then do not receive a War Widows pension, although are still classified as War Widow (and have a DVA Gold Card). This is because the War Widows pension is classified as compensation and one cannot be compensated twice (because of having received a lump sum). However - and this is where the confusion lies – they may still qualify for a supplementary pension. Some widows mistakenly view that supplementary pension as being their "War Widows pension" - it is not, and unlike the full War Widows pension, is subject to asset testing. Thus, the recent changes to asset testing mean that some widows may had had their supplementary pension affected (but retain their Gold Card).

All widows should be reassured that any widow who is affected by the recent changes to asset testing will have received a letter from DVA some time ago explaining their personal circumstances.

Should you have any questions on this matter or your pension and entitlement payments, please contact the DVA and/or Centrelink, depending on your personal circumstances, noting that this advice is just that - advice, albeit given in good faith and to the best of our knowledge and understanding

The Gallipoli Bar at Kedron Wavell Services Club.

The Gallipoli Bar has something for everyone.

• Catch all your favourite sports action live in the new sports lounge

• Have a punt in our TAB area

• Check out FREE live and local music acts

• Enjoy a relaxing drink after work

FREE LIVE BANDS.

From 8.30pm every Friday and Saturday night in the Gallipoli Bar will have free live music acts to entertain you while you enjoy a drink and relax in one of our many seating areas.

To view upcoming free live music acts click here.

TRIVIA THURSDAYS.

From 7pm in the Gallipoli Bar

Grab a group of friends and test your wits in our free trivia challenge.

Lots of great prizes to be won!

First prize is a MASSIVE $100 Kedron-Wavell Kash.

Second prize is $50 Kash plus plenty more giveaways throughout the night.

Update: The Assets Test.

As part of the 2015 Budget, the Government announced that it would rebalance the assets test parameters by increasing the assets test free area and increasing the assets test taper rate at which a pension is reduced once assets exceed the asset free area.

From 1 January 2017 the:

• asset free area will increase to $250,000 for single homeowners and to $375,000 for homeowner couples;

• asset free area will increase to $450,000 for single non-homeowners and to $575,000 for non-homeowner couples; and

• the taper rate for income support pensions will increase to $3.00 per fortnight for every $1,000 of assets over the new asset free areas.

Any client that has their income support pension reassessed as nil and would have normally lost their eligibility for a Gold Card due to losing their income support payment from 1 January 2017, will continue to retain their gold card through grandfathering arrangements under the legislation.

Clients whose pension is cancelled because of the assets test rebalance, will automatically be issued with a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card if over pension age, and may apply for an Australian Government Health Care Card. These clients are not required to meet the usual income test for these cards.

Disability and War Widow pensions are not affected by this measure.

Around 18 November 2016, DVA wrote to pensioners whose pension rate was anticipated to be affected by this measure on 1 January 2017 to inform them of the changes, the likelihood they will be affected and to provide them with an opportunity to review their circumstances, if applicable.

On Wednesday 7 December 2016, letters were lodged with Australia Post to advise pensioners whose pension rate will vary due to the assets test rebalance from 1 January 2017, how they are affected and informing them of their new pension rate.

Future Predictions:

In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide. Within just a few years, their business model disappeared and they went bankrupt. What happened to Kodak will happen in a lot of industries in the next 10 years - and most people don't see it coming. Did you think in 1998 that 3 years later you would never take pictures on paper film again? Yet digital cameras were invented in 1975. The first ones only had 10,000 pixels, but followed Moore's law.

So as with all exponential technologies, it was a disappointment for a long time, before it became way superior and got mainstream in only a few short years. It will now happen with Artificial Intelligence, health, autonomous and electric cars, education, 3D printing, agriculture and jobs. Welcome to the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Welcome to the Exponential Age.

Software will disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years. Uber is just a software tool, they don't own any cars and are now the biggest taxi company in the world. Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don't own any properties.

Artificial Intelligence: Computers become exponentially better in understanding the world. This year, a computer beat the best Go player in the world, 10 years earlier than expected. In the US, young lawyers already don't get jobs. Because of IBM Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff) within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans. So if you study law, stop immediately. There will be 90% fewer lawyers in the future, only specialists will remain. Watson already helps nurses diagnosing cancer, 4 time more accurate than human nurses. Facebook now has a pattern recognition software that can recognize faces better than humans. By 2030, computers will become more intelligent than humans.

Autonomous Cars: In 2018 the first self-driving cars will appear for the public. Around 2020, the complete industry will start to be disrupted. You don't want to own a car anymore. You will call a car with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to your destination. You will not need to park it, you only pay for the driven distance and can be productive while driving. Our kid’s kids will never get a driver's license and will never own a car. It will change the cities, because we will need 90-95% fewer cars for that. We can transform former parking space into parks. 1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide. We now have one accident every 100,000 km, with autonomous driving that will drop to one accident in 10 million km. That will save a million lives each year.

Most car companies may become bankrupt. Traditional car companies try the evolutionary approach and just build a better car, while tech companies (Tesla, Apple, Google) will do the revolutionary approach and build a computer on wheels. Engineers from Volkswagen and Audi; are completely terrified of Tesla.

Insurance Companies will have massive trouble because without accidents, the insurance will become 100x cheaper. Their car insurance business model will disappear.

Real estate will change. Because if you can work while you commute, people will move further away to live in a more beautiful neighbourhood.

Electric cars won’t become mainstream until 2020. Cities will be less noisy because all cars will run on electricity. Electricity will become incredibly cheap and clean: Solar production has been on an exponential curve for 30 years, but you can only now see the impact. Last year, more solar energy was installed worldwide than fossil. The price for solar will drop so much that all coal companies will be out of business by 2025.

Water: With cheap electricity comes cheap and abundant water. Desalination now only needs 2kWh per cubic meter. We don't have scarce water in most places, we only have scarce drinking water. Imagine what will be possible if anyone can have as much clean water as he wants, for nearly no cost.

Health: There will be companies that will build a medical device (called the "Tricorder" from Star Trek) that works with your phone, which takes your retina scan, your blood sample and you breathe into it. It then analyses 54 biomarkers that will identify nearly any disease. It will be cheap, so in a few years everyone on this planet will have access to world class medicine, nearly for free.

3D printing: The price of the cheapest 3D printer came down from $18,000 to $400 within 10 years. In the same time, it became 100 times faster. All major shoe companies started 3D printing shoes. Spare airplane parts are already 3D printed in remote airports. The space station now has a printer that eliminates the need for the large number of spare parts they used to have in the past.

At the end of this year, new smart phones will have 3D scanning possibilities. You can then 3D scan your feet and print your perfect shoe at home. In China, they already 3D printed a complete 6-storey office building. By 2027, 10% of everything that's being produced will be 3D printed.

Business Opportunities: If you think of a niche you want to go in, ask yourself: "in the future, do you think we will have that?" and if the answer is yes, how can you make that happen sooner? If it doesn't work with your phone, forget the idea. And any idea designed for success in the 20th century is doomed to failure in the 21st century.

Work: 70-80% of jobs will disappear in the next 20 years. There will be a lot of new jobs, but it is not clear if there will be enough new jobs in such a small time.

Agriculture: There will be a $100 agricultural robot in the future. Farmers in 3rd world countries can then become managers of their field instead of working all days on their fields.

Agroponics will need much less water. The first Petri dish produced veal is now available and will be cheaper than cow-produced veal in 2018. Right now, 30% of all agricultural surfaces is used for cows. Imagine if we don't need that space anymore. There are several start-ups that will bring insect protein to the market shortly. It contains more protein than meat. It will be labelled as "alternative protein source" (because most people still reject the idea of eating insects)

Moodies:  There is an iPhone app called "moodies" which can already tell in which mood you are. By 2020 there will be apps that can tell by your facial expressions if you are lying. Imagine a political debate where it's being displayed when they are telling the truth and when not.

Bitcoin will become mainstream this year and might even become the default reserve currency.

Longevity: Right now, the average life span increases by 3 months per year. Four years ago, the life span used to be 79 years, now it's 80 years. The increase itself is increasing and by 2036, there will be more than one year increase per year. So we all might live for a long long time, probably way more than 100.

Education: The cheapest smart phones are already selling at $10 in Africa and Asia. By 2020, 70% of all humans will own a smart phone. That means, everyone has the same access to world class education.

We truly live in an exciting world.

Soap!

Is it only me or does soap wash away heaps quicker than it used to??  I can't get a cake to last more than a week!!

Tesla Model S.

The Tesla Model S is a fantastic looking full-sized all-electric five-door, luxury lift-back, produced by Tesla Inc. and introduced in June 2012. It scored a perfect 5.0 NHTSA automobile safety rating, as well as being the "third fastest accelerating production car ever produced," and the fastest accelerating car in production as of December, 2016. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official range for the 2012 Model S Performance model equipped with an 85 kWh (310 MJ) battery pack is 426 km, higher than any other electric car at the time. EPA rated its energy consumption at 237.5 watt-hours per kilometre (24 kWh/100 km) for a combined fuel economy of 2.64 L/100 km.

The Model S became the first electric car to top the monthly new car sales ranking in any country, twice leading in Norway, in September and December 2013 and also in Denmark in December 2015. Global Model S sales passed the 150,000 unit milestone in November 2016, with the U.S. as the leading market with 57% of global sales. Other leading country markets are Norway, China, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland.

The Model S was styled by Franz von Holzhausen, who previously worked for Mazda’s North American Operations.

Click the pic below to see how the Tesla is made.

Veterans’ Suicide.

On the last day of the Senate Hearings into ADF Veteran’ Suicide, where DVA leadership rallied in defence of their deliberate money-saving dysfunction… one more warrior lost his fight!

The horrific numbers are:

From 2001 through to 06 Feb 2017 – a total of 409 veterans have taken their own lives.

·         From 2001 to 2014 there were a total of 292 suicides.

·         In 2015 there were 35

·         In 2016 there were 78

·         From 01 Jan 2017 to 31 Jan 2017 there were 3

·         From 31 Jan 2017 to 06 Feb 2017 there has been 1

Bloody Discraceful!

Senate Inquiry into Suicide by veterans and ex-service personnel.

Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) Secretary Simon Lewis PSM recently reminded members of the Veteran and Defence communities that support is available for anyone who may be disturbed by the Senate Inquiry into Suicide by veterans and ex-service personnel public hearings.

Mr Lewis encouraged members of the veteran and Defence communities who may be upset by the public hearings, including witnesses and those who observe the hearings in person or through media reporting, to contact the Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service (VVCS) for support.

"VVCS provides specialised mental health services to around 27,000 current and former ADF members and their families each year. "Services include face-to-face and telephone counselling for individuals and families through VVCS centres around Australia and a strong network of outreach counsellors in regional and rural areas.

Clinicians also work with couples and families on relationship issues that arise from the unique demands of military life, and run a range of group programs, including free suicide prevention workshops for members of the veteran community.

VVCS is free and confidential and available 24/7 on 1800 011 046. For more information, visit the VVCS website or follow VVCS on Facebook.

Blessed are those who are cracked,

for they are the ones who let in the light!

Ok, Ok!! – I’m going back to my room now!!