rgmwa

As the war drags on, I'm becoming more pessimistic about Ukraine ever getting the Russians out of their country unless something happens to break what is now almost a stalemate. Unless Putin gets deposed by his own side, he now has time on his side to wait for the West's resolve to slowly diminish as they run out of ammunition and equipment themselves. It's now been 500 days, and Ukraine's counteroffensive is obviously going nowhere fast due to thousands of mines, WW1 style Russian defences and lack of air superiority. Meanwhile Russia keeps sending over barrages of cheap drones that require expensive missiles to intercept and which can't stop all of them.  It's not a good situation.

Interesting assessment of what is likely to happen if Trump gets re-elected: https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-author-bruce-wolpe-on-the-shocking-consequences-for-australia-of-a-trump-24-win-209138

Just what Twitter needs - a makeover.

I hired a car in Melbourne a couple of months ago. Wish I’d seen that video before as I have no idea what the car’s system may have got off my phone. 

Putin is betting that the West will eventually  get tired of the fight and walk away, and he may be right. If his man in the White House, Trump, gets back in next year he’ll definitely pull it off unless he gets done in by his own side first. 

I would not like to be in Surovikin’s shoes. Chances are they are being suspended out of a window somewhere while he’s still wearing them. Or some even worse experience.

5 hours ago, old man emu said:

Apart from the toilets in shopping centres, and ignoring those in pubs and fast food places, the only toilets available to the public are in parks, and there are very few parks in the main street of towns.

We're pretty lucky with public toilets in Australia. It's a lot worse in Europe where you are more likely to find that the park or roadside stop IS the public toilet. 

Could be, but hard to to be sure having so far seen neither the CCTV creature nor any of the movies.

It looks like the carbon fibre tube was just butt jointed to the titanium ring and relied entirely on the glue to hold the two parts together. With no sleeve or some other form of mechanical interlock, the shear stresses in the glue and on ends of the carbon fibre layers due to the different material properties (carbon fibre, glue and titianium) under pressure must have been huge. No wonder the ends of the tube delaminated.

See how you go with this. Not that easy.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jun/26/can-you-solve-it-the-simple-question-almost-everyone-gets-wrong

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

Whatever happens to the current leadership, we are not going to see (...) become a peaceful, democratic country for a very long time, if ever. It's not a matter of just getting rid of (...); the rot is entrenched and layered right through. The west has a dream that some poster boy messiah will rise to power with the support of the people and lead the country to normality, but that's all it is, just a dream and a fantasy. It's not going to happen.

At least Russia and the USA have something in common.

Utkin looks even meaner than Prigozhin. I read that he is probably a neo-Nazi.

Also Prigozhin’s statement that the Ukrainian invasion was based on the lie that they needed to de-Nazify the place directly undercut Putin’s narrative. Hard to see that being part of a false flag script.

I understood the deal was for Prigozhin to go into exile in Belarus (probably in a top floor penthouse suite with large windows) and for his troops to be absorbed into the Russian forces. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

He’d probably be safer moving to Ukraine. 

The Russian population must be feeling very confused as to why Russians are suddenly invading Russia.

Prigohzin's plan of a quick detour into Rostov to give his MoD enemies a thrashing and then going back to the fight in Ukraine seems insane. They won't let him get away with that, especially when he's basically criticising Putin's decision to attack Ukraine in the first place. His goose is cooked I suspect, but the Ukrainians must be cheering him on.

About the only positive thing that can be said about this submersible is that it imploded so they didn't slowly suffocate. Hopefully they were properly briefed on the risks before they got on board, but at US$250k per ticket I'm sure the company wouldn't want to have frightened the passengers off by being overly pessimistic.  Nevertheless, all of these people were there by choice, not necessity. Hopefully, any other tourist ventures will learn the lesson and use properly designed and tested subs.

2 hours ago, red750 said:

Onextrack, I saw someone on TV the other day say that in W.A. now, you cannot move a barrow load of soil without a permit. zIs this true?

Full details here: https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-planning-lands-and-heritage/aboriginal-cultural-heritage-act-2021

We're on half an acre and could potentially be affected (although pretty unlikely), but the farmers out there are very unhappy.  Fines for serious violations can up to $10m for a company or $1m for an individual and 5 years in prison. For failing to report a site that may be culturally significant the fine is $20,000 for individuals and $100,000 for companies. You also have to pay hourly rates for the local aboriginal representatives to come and assess your property for its cultural heritage value.

Well the Voice referendum got the go-ahead today so it will be interesting to see how it goes. I think there’s a good chance it will fail given the divisions currently on display. The ‘no’ camp  mainly seem to want a treaty and ‘real power’, whatever that means, rather than just an advisory body. But real power to do what, and how do they propose to fix all the problems that they don’t think the Voice will be able to? So far I haven’t heard either side explain what they think the underlying problems in the aboriginal communities are, and what they would do about them that would be different to what has been tried before.

Currently it's defined as a person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and is accepted as such by the community in which he or she lives.

It at least avoids the problematic percentage debate, but what defines a community and how do you demonstrate acceptance?  What happens if you don't live in an identifiable Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community?

23 minutes ago, red750 said:

Why take all those documents, move them around, and fail to return them when requested? 

a) he likes to collect souvenirs

b) he likes to show off his superior knowledge

c) he may have stuff he can use against people

d) he may have stuff he can make money from

e) the government wants it back which is reason enough to keep it because it’s ‘his’’ and nobody is going to tell him what to do.

f) he won the last election so he’s still the real president and can do what he likes.

Unfortunately, the judge appointed to the case, Eileen Cannon, has a track record of siding with Trump, so depending on who she allows on the jury and what she allows to be presented in evidence there’s a good chance he may get away with a slap on the wrist after a year or two of legal argument, appeals and delays. There won’t be a quick result in this case and there’s a good chance that the jury will include a fair number of Trump supporters who won’t want to find him guilty.

Never too late...

May 1978