 G'day mate, 40 here. So I just wrote a very crowded bus and it made me think how everything's easier when you don't hate and loathe people on the bus. So I got on a bus, every seat was taken, like every square foot was taken, people were standing and the bus was absolutely jammed and it was okay and it was cool because we didn't have any super predators on the bus. I mean in Los Angeles, you don't want to stand within three feet of a super predator. If you accidentally bump a super predator or some gangbanger, they're very likely to feel disrespected and get violent with you. It was easier to ride a bus, absolutely jammed, standing room only. It was so jammed an attractive young woman was forced to sit next to me. That's how jammed it was and it's so much easier to be in physically uncomfortable spaces with people you like than in comfortable spaces with people you don't like. So when people talk to me about how beautiful Sydney is or how beautiful Los Angeles is or San Francisco is or Philadelphia or Rio de Janeiro, to me it all comes down to the quality of your connections with people. Like I got a lot of mates in Sydney, so that makes Sydney beautiful to me. I'd rather be in a cold place, an un-senic place filled with my friends than in the most beautiful place in the world where I don't have any connections. Like everything comes down to the quality of the people. Like Sydney, Sydney's eastern suburbs in particular have good quality people, like everybody's nice. I'm asking for directions. I didn't have one unpleasant experience with anyone when I was in Australia for two months last year. So I've been in Australia for four days this time. No unpleasant experiences. I ask people for help. I get an absolutely jammed bus and everybody seems stressed, right? Stressed. I remember in America everyone's talked about how they're stressed. Didn't see anyone looking stressed on a jammed bus. Like no one seemed terribly uncomfortable, distressed, anxious. I mean I have a lot of tendencies to anxiety, right? And navigating myself my way around the city, particularly as I'm tired. I've walked about 12 miles today so I was getting tired and trying to find the bus and just asking for help and didn't realize I needed to take a train and then get on the bus. But actually everyone's perfectly civil, perfectly nice and there aren't any predators around of which I'm aware. Like I'm not seeing trash. I'm not seeing graffiti. It's easy to be on a bus. It's absolutely jammed if people are decent and nice. I was on a plane. Every seat was taken. It was absolutely jammed, right? But in my row was this wonderful couple from Colorado who are incredibly nice and polite and thoughtful and considerate and kind and good. It's just a wonderful experience, right? I'd rather be jammed on a plane with people I like than have abundant leg room. Well, okay, I think I need to amend that. I've never flown first class. I think maybe I was, yeah, I don't think I've ever flown. So maybe I would like to fly first class and just experience that abundant leg room, just be able to tip the seat back and rest. So if I take the train up to Brisbane, I might splurge the extra $30 for the first class reclining, ticket reclining seat. So it's $70 economy, $100 for one way train from Sydney to Brisbane. It's about a 12 hour ride through rural Australia, little towns in Australia, all up the coast. I hear it's not particularly scenic, but at least you're not going to be on board with super predators. So is web access costlier in Australia? To the best of my knowledge, nothing is costlier in Australia because 64 American cents make for one Australian dollar. So everything seems to be 20% cheaper in Australia. I'm getting so much bang for my buck. I ride the bus, a $4 bus ticket is like 250 American. I bought enough groceries for two weeks, cost me 184 Australian, turns into 121 American. And with my Chase Amazon credit card, they're not adding any surcharge for my foreign transactions. So most credit cards I've have, they ding you for foreign transactions, like they add like a 10% surcharge. That doesn't happen with my Chase card. So is web access costlier in Australia? No. I did get an Australian SIM card, like 80 gigs of data for 40 bucks. And I can make international calls. I can just go to town. So by contrast, with my T-Mobile plan, I pay $50 for up to 30 days of 15 gigs, right? So domestic plan, 80 gigs of data for a month, 40 bucks. T-Mobile, 15 gigs of data for 50 bucks, 30 days. Livy and Newton John died, did Australian meltdown? No, she's not a big deal. So Australian tastes in popular music are, they're more ACDC than a Livy and Newton John. So Americans like softer, more mellow pop music than Australians do. So Air Supply, Livy and Newton John, but these aren't big deals in Australia. Okay, let's have a look here. What else is in the comment section? I want to hide that light behind me. Does this give me like a saintly glow? Two cents says great, talking about contradictions in individuals. Yeah, like a lot of people think, oh, you know, Apollonians, those are good people, or this ethnic nationalist, you know, these are good people, right? Good people are just good in certain situations. They're horrible in other situations. They're cowardly in other situations. They're nasty and dishonest in other situations. So talking about contradictions in individuals, our different impulses, seeing things from one day to the next reminds me of the actor Michael McKean who played Saul Goodman's brother, talking about this saying people aren't just one thing. Yeah, people are very different in different situations. Yeah, Kanye West is shockingly discovering that being anti-Semitic is bad for business. Yeah, being publicly anti-black, anti-Mexican, anti-Chinese, well, I don't know about anti-Christian. I don't think that's true. So John Smith says Australia's only 57.2% European. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I think it's much higher than that. So let's get a Wikipedia. Let's get some entries, answers here. Boy, yeah, a little tired after 12 miles of hiking. Let's see. Okay, Australia has basically 3,000 square miles. What are the demographics? So come on, where are the demographics here, right? Ancestry and immigration. Okay, demographics. Okay, in the 2021 census, 33% of the population is from England, 9% from Scotland, 4% from Germany, 2% Greek, 1% Vietnamese, 1% Lebanese, 2% Filipino, 2% Dutch, 3% Aboriginal, that's greatly inflated. Like, people are incentivized to claim to be Aboriginal even if they're only 1 16th Aboriginal. 4% Italian, 5% Chinese, Australian, 30%, Irish, 10%. So yeah, it essentially breaks down to about 85% European. So Wikipedia entry says 57% European and 33.8% Oceanian, meaning Australians, right? So it combined 57 and 33, you get 90%. So the population is about 17% Asian. So Australia is more than 80% European. But it's just so profound. You get on a bus, right? Jam bus. And it's not stress. It's not anger. It's not antisocial behavior. It's not lashing out. There's not violence. It's not the threat of violence. It's not fair skipping. Much better to be on a jammed bus with good people than in a bus with abundant leg room, abundant space, but dangerous people. Bye bye.