pmccarthy

The areas north of Broken Hill (and probably everywhere else, it's just that I spent a lot of time north of Broken Hill) were littered with stone mortars and pestles. Hundreds of them. The pastoralists collected them and made garden displays with them. When I was young I thought the Aborigines were careless with them. Much later I realised they had left them one days journey apart on all their travelling routes, so they didn't have to carry them between camps.

 

What I still don't know is whether the Aborigines were gone when the stones were collected, or whether it was part of a strategy to drive them out of those districts.

 

 

http://www.engineair.com.au/

Interesting idea and it's being developed close to home.

The picture shows a vane motor just like the ones we were using in rail boggers 40 years ago, and I think they were 40 years old then. They have also been used on underground locomotives with a large tank of compressed air as an alternative to battery locos. Nothing new there. There are significant heat energy losses in using stored compressed air, the initial compression is not efficient.

 

 

So the first Last Post was the second-last Post.

 

 

I went on a delegation to Africa with Julie Bishop two years ago. She is a very fit and focused lady. She jogged up and down the airstrip every morning while the rest of us were still snoozing.

 

 

Speaking of the existence of souls, it seems the religious people divide the world's populace into unbelievers "are not souls" and believers "are souls". The "are souls" get to go to heaven.

 

 

[ATTACH]47484._xfImport[/ATTACH] Science meets religion

Moses was probably of the Egyptian royal family. For example Tuthmose 1 named two of his sons Amenmose and Wadjmose. The Israelites made up the story about him being found in the bulrushes so they didn't have to admit the big boss was one of the hated Royalty. So he had every chance to pinch Egyptian stuff before he fled with the Israelites. No magic required.

 

 

When I was a kid riding two abreast was illegal. The cops would pull you up. Good rule, should still be enforced.

 

 

Really interesting turbs, thanks.

 

 

A study once found that after several million years, the evidence of our civilisation would be porcelain toilet bowls. Presumably religious or ceremonial objects in a world wide culture.

 

 

Yahweh and Baal were both gods, of two opposed sects in ancient Israel. The Yaweh mob won, probably because they were nastier and more aggressive, so Baal became the devil cast out of heaven. So it goes, throughout all religion. If we were real theologians then someone would go round to a poster's house, kill him, then write the next chapter of our Rec flying bible where he was a really bad guy.

 

 

Turns, I'm impressed by the amount of typing you are prepared to do to present this. My own take (as an avid reader of scientific topics) is that Darwin is alive and well but the processes are more complex than had been assumed. In recent months, for example, there has been irrefutable evidence that life experiences can affect the development of subsequent generations. This is heresy in traditional Darwinism but can be accommodated in a broader view of evolution. Similarly the role of virus and gut flora seems to extend to blood components and so on, we are really a conglomerate of symbiotic creatures. The next ten to twenty years of research will be very exciting but I expect Darwin's fundamental mechanisms will still be valid. In the same way, we are discovering that life exists in the Earth's crust as deep as we can drill. There may be more biomass in the earth than on the surface. We really have a lot to learn still.

 

 

Many country towns have a hidden asset that no-one can steal from them: a nearby abandoned underground mine. If the mine was built in the last thirty years or so and has reasonably extensive workings, then there may be scope for a local energy storage scheme based on hydro power. Intermittent solar or wind energy, or cheap off-peak power, could be used to pump water to a surface storage, with the water returned to underground turbines when the power is needed. Because a very high head is available, the volume of water need not be great. To generate 20MW for 8 hours at 500m head requires less than 100,000 tonnes of extracted rock void.

 

In aggregate, abandoned mines may offer a significant opportunity to smooth out the power needs of the grid as a whole. Or they may allow robust off-grid developments. The power industry outside the USA has generally not considered this opportunity because they are ignorant of the condition and extent of underground mines, and the relatively modest cost needed to re-access the main decline or shaft for this purpose. The cost per unit of energy stored may be small in comparison with the cost of a new surface pumped storage scheme.

 

 

New ABC Doco on Catalyst. I think it is tonight

 

 

Until recently there was no such discipline as Climate Scientist. There was Geology, which studied the the way the planet evolved and behaved including the atmosphere, and there was Atmospheric Physics which was about what was going on now in the atmosphere. When I read that we should believe the climate scientists an alarm bell rings. Suddenly there are thousands or tens of thousands of them on the public purse, a lot of them playing with computer models. I was taught geology more than 40 years ago and I reckon I know enough to be a skeptic and to see holes in a lot of the silly things we read in the newspapers.

 

 

Thanks GG. I reckon Richard Feynman was just about the smartest bloke that ever lived. I didn't know about the YouTube videos. Now I will watch them all.

 

 

There is no steady state climate. At any time in the cycle it is either getting warmer or cooler. We are due another ice age. Warmer is better.

 

 

There are many abandoned mines in Australia. They could be used for pumped hydro storage to smooth out the peaks of other power sources. Each mine could generate 20MW for eight hours each day using a 500m head and 5 cubic metres per second of water, which could easily be stored in the abandoned workings and recycled.

 

 

Replaced the rear spring shackles on my 1949 Bentley Special for just over $1000. Flying ain't that expensive.

 

 

Graduated from punching cards to a HP desktop in 1978, single line display, audio cassette storage, hP modified BASIC. Then a Morrow C PM machine. then a Commodore Amiga - still amazing sound and graphics, I don't know how they did it.

 

 

Download speed 23.79

 

Upload speed 4.56

 

I'm on Telstra wireless NBN in country Victoria.

 

 

I started work at 17 and 45 years later am still working. Five kids put through Uni. The mining industry has paid for 40 acres of heaven and an LSA to play with on weekends. I get annoyed by the whingers who complain about fat cats with expensive aeroplanes and take it personally. Life gives back what you put in, I reckon. Many friends are flying on a shoestring, but they enjoy what they are doing. All of us ( I would count a dozen at least as friends) have no time for today' unionists and their political mates. They are the real fat cats, bullies, thugs and non- producers. The Labor party once stood for something and got my vote but in recent decades they are in it for individual self- aggrandisement. Apart from that, I have no opinion.

 

 

Formication? I can't think of a shorter word beginning with f.

 

 

A lot of silly things are said about mining. If a mining company makes $5M after tax, it has probably spent $100M in the year to do so. That $100M goes into wages and supplies in Australia, and taxes to Australia, so the whole economy benefits. All that money keeps many Australians in jobs, not just those working in the mines. Sure, the profits go as dividends to the shareholders. Who are they? My pension fund and your pension fund. I'll bet many of the posters here are shareholders in those evil foreign mining companies, like BHPB or RioTinto through their super funds. Anyone is allowed to buy shares in mining companies, they can then share the profits. But the profits are minuscule compared with the expenditure that flows into and supports our economy.

 

 

Love it. We have a magician in our flying club. I'm going to surprise him.