pmccarthy

Facthunter - do you mean airleg mining? I don't have current stats for airleg mining. But mining is one of Australia's safest industries., has been for a couple of decades. OME - Re the geology - the rock at Ballarat is Ordovician sediment. It is slates, shales and sandstone, but quite strongly weathered to weaken it. There are many faults, some known as "leatherjackets" because they look like leather. The rock is weak and broken compared to most of the mines I have worked on, even others in Central Victoria. It would not be safe to stand under unsupported ground, so the miners work forward putting in rockbolts and mesh from a safe position. That is, you stand under the mesh while boring the rockbolt holes and installing the mesh out ahead. It is a highly skilled business.

The management of the Ballarat gold mine is accused by unions of negligence in the death of a miner. They say that airleg mining is a cost cutting exercise. I was involved in setting up the Ballarat mine and running it, until about ten years ago. I also worked as an airleg miner when I was young. it is a more hazardous method than mechanised mining but is still used in many places, though gradually being phased out. At Ballarat the environmental activists have stalled the development of more space in the tailings dam. Airleg mining allows more selective mining so that the amount of waste rock, hence tailings, can by cut to one third or less. It is the only way to keep operating with very limited tailings space. So it is more environmentally acceptable than the safer mechanised method. I have no connection with the mine and no knowledge of their decisions. But it seems to have been a choice between shutting down, with loss of jobs, or using airleg mining. People outside the industry react to mining accidents with horror. But they are rare. Road accidents occur daily and we seem to accept them as inevitable. This one seems to me like the environmentalist who demands that roadside trees be preserved. Then someone hits one and is killed. It is an unintended consequence, usually driven by people who do not understand or take responsibility for what they are demanding.

26GIAB

None of he followed her home.

Brighten. It contains the fourth direction.

I don’t know how you do it. I have not recognised one face since this thing started!

Every sperm is sacred Every sperm is great If a sperm is wasted God gets quite irate

It might be a safety thing for hard landings in light aircraft.

This discussion is impenetrable.

Told you it was political!

Nothing wrong with reducing usage, I agree. But setting impossible targets does no one any good. Unfortunately any debate quickly gets political. For example, I see more good science and common sense in the discussions of Peta Credlin and Malcolm Roberts than any of the current government. That makes me impossible to talk to, I guess.

I would argue that CSIRO is driven by politics and economics. As are the many large companies who had embraced "woke" causes and are now having to back down and get in touch with the real world.

I would argue that public opinion may be, but science is certainly not. The consequences of "stop oil" are horrendous, but it will not happen because it cannot happen.

Hence the term butt ugly.

It’s easy to give up drinking. I've done it dozens of times. Did it again about a fortnite ago. I'm thinking of giving up again now.

I went to see the Holden museum in Echuca today. It was my final visit, as the museum is closing and the cars will be auctioned off. But they will go to good homes, and we will perhaps see them on the roads and at car shows in future.

First Person View (FPV) drones have changed warfare in Ukraine. They may end the world as we know it! Military technology leaks out into civil society. Bad actors get access to high-powered rifles and machine guns. It will be even easier to get hold of FPV drones in future. You can send them 10, 20 or more km from anywhere to attack someone you don't like. Perhaps a business rival or political opponent. If the military payloads (explosives) are hard to come by, there are plenty of ways to make your own. Society will descend into chaos, and it will be impossible to police the menace. This problem is just around the corner.

If you have equipment that you can't use in case the enemy gets it then what's the point?

Yeah Bing drives me mad. It does AI crap that I dont ask for.

Our PM?

I have been watching colourised movies of New York and London Circa 1900. Big electric buses in 1900, electric taxi cabs in 1898, posties on powered scooters in 1900. Not what I expected.

I have seen a few videos of idiots trying to drive through flooded causeways and stalling. Lots of people lined up and cheering them on, encouraging them to have a go. Even a Tesla with water up to the windows. I don’t know which part of the UK.

Was it mushrooms?

We inherited a shit world in the 1960s. I expected to die in a nuclear war, or in Vietnam.

The perfect dashboard