eightyknots

Good stuff!

Or this:

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Careful Bex

[ATTACH]48643._xfImport[/ATTACH] A somewhat useless sign.

I thought this was the original drifter: [ATTACH]48045._xfImport[/ATTACH] (this Drifter is for sale on eBay)

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Imagine the outcry if Philips ran an ad like this nowadays? Everything is about decency and not causing offence. Do we live in a better world now?

I went to Wellington for the day and I could not believe how much of ghost town the Wellington CBD was. There were plenty of people with high-vis vests and clipboards and trucks with orange flashing lights but none of the usual office people. I also went into the Newcastle (NSW) CBD back in 1989 and Hunter Street was far messier: many parapets and gables from commercial buildings had fallen into the main street. There were some pretty big aftershocks felt during the day I was there GeoNet - Quakes . I am going again there for the day today (Tuesday); I hope there won't be the same number of shakes today.

Most young earthers believe that the world is more than 6,000 years old: 6,020 to be precise. This is because by as accurate a reckoning as possible, using biblical genealogies, it has been calculated that the earth was most likely created 4,004 BC.

That is the dangerous one! What about the sign of the times?

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Okay, I think this is a silly sign: [ATTACH]48631._xfImport[/ATTACH]

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A thing that I have seen more and more is that people who (over)pay big money to by a hybrid car (such as the Toyota Prius for instance) are so obsessed about saving a few petrol dollars that they travel between 10 and 15 km/h below the speed limit. Is this in order to make even greater petrol cost savings? ...I am not sure without asking those drivers but there certainly seems to be a pattern in my highway encounters.

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....applicable to aeronautical navigation?

BUT.... .... do you remember the little red book? [ATTACH]48006._xfImport[/ATTACH]

There is one essential difference: Japan's government has borrowed almost exclusively from the Japanese people. Greece, the United States and Australia have borrowed much from Big Banks, Chinese and Arab interests who are keen to get their hands on government bonds. Having debts to external entities is far more dangerous and it is likely that Japan will happily carry on with its enormous 230% of GDP debt while Australia's debt will become worrying when it rises from the current (estimated) 37.5% of GDP closer to 50% of GDP.

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The best way to help humanity is to heavily reduce spending on armaments. This is an indescribable expense for many nations (few excepted such as Costa Rica) and is a huge drain on their economies. Armament spending is a very large wealth transfer as follows: 1. governments collect taxes from people but the ultra-rich usually pay minimal or no tax shifting the burden on the lower income, lower wealth people. 2. frequently there is still not enough money so governments extend their indebtedness to rich banks or overseas investors. 3. a sizeable proportion of this collected tax -which could be used to make the life of people better- is instead used on armaments, usually sending money to companies based in Europe or North America. 4. armament companies have a large concentration of uber-wealthy shareholders ...why? Because they are such a fantastic cash cow business. Similarly, there are many well-paid executives, engineers and technicians who earn salaries there often unattainable elsewhere. 5. armament companies employ the best sales executives who appear to have unprecedented contacts in government circles. 6. governments are forever talked into the latest-and-greatest equipment and this leads to the retiring of the last generation's hardware which governments paid a lot for in the first place (frequently they are still paying loans off for these toys) and, at times, these same companies talk governments into very expensive life-extension or upgrade projects which also cost a lot. 7. Back to step 1 Governments seem to ignore these facts: 1. Smaller commitments to "defence" spending (which in many cases should be termed "offence" spending) would keep more money in low income earners' pockets. 2. Overseas indebtedness would reduced markedly which means our own sovereignty is kept. 3. Instead of having large, standing armies, navies and air forces the labour 'wasted' there could instead be used for wonderful humanitarian endeavours. This could involve installation of PV panels on many remote huts, a decent, microbe-free water supply and education.

Hey Litespeed, that is exactly what I said. I will quote myself: That's shocking: it is a criminal act and MUST be dealt with by law. Dealing with this in-house is no better than sweeping the matter under the carpet.