willedoo

I wouldn't have picked that. I thought he looked a bit like Donald Sutherland in the photo.

My nephew was injured in Japan and had to spend a week on a U.S. carrier as they had hospital facilities. I think from memory it was the Carl Vinson. He got the opportunity to watch a lot of FA-18 launches and traps while he was recovering.

I wonder how the two lots get on when the Marines are on carrier deployment.

During peacetime, the Coast Guard operates under the Department of Homeland Security. During wartime, it can be transferred to the Department of Navy. Both the USN and the USMC are part of the Department of Navy. All three branches finish flight training as Naval Aviators and are issued the Naval Aviator badge, so there's a lot of commonality between Navy, Marines and Coast Guard. Best not to insult any of them.

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

Never, never, call a US Navy operator of an aircraft a "pilot". They are "aviators".  The rest - USAF, Marines, Coast Guard and National Defence operators of aircraft - are "pilots"

Coast Guard and the Marine Corps use the term Naval Aviator as well.

I saw a short clip on Xcrement of a crew member filming a carrier launch. I'd never given it a thought before that they film every launch and landing. A few years ago I watched a documentary about operations on the USS Carl Vinson, and they mentioned that all carrier aviators are continually rated on performance with every landing scrutinised. If they don't maintain a certain rating, they are shipped out.

The smarter ones would buy it along with some other items. As far as not buying one and just grabbing one off the shelf and stating in the supermarket, it probably wouldn't be such a smart move by the perp. It's a restricted space area and easy to get blocked in an aisle.

Always the possibility of someone testing an AI Bot on forums.

Don't feed the troll.

2 hours ago, facthunter said:

Today unfortunately, there's a lot of people out there with mental issues and I see no easy FIX for that. I've always said carrying a concealed weapon should be made more difficult.

Nev, as you say, there's no easy fix for the mental health problem. There's also no easy fix for the problem of knives being used as a weapon. There's already a ban on carrying them in public, concealed or not, without lawful excuse. As far as concealment goes, it wouldn't be workable to funnel shopping centre patrons through airport type security. Even if they did that, the perpetrator could enter the centre through security then go to the supermarket and obtain a kitchen carving knife.

Crikey, that's one hell of a URL.

4 hours ago, pmccarthy said:

This has me intrigued. Still glowing after three days. Looks like it was attached to a yellow balloon. Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Could it be an LED balloon light?

https://www.temu.com/ul/kuiper/un9.html?subj=goods-un&_bg_fs=1&_p_jump_id=894&_x_vst_scene=adg&goods_id=601099540248782&sku_id=17592316137379&adg_ctx=a-618407fd~c-ee284d4b~f-6a894d11&_x_ads_sub_channel=shopping&_p_rfs=1&_x_ns_prz_type=-1&_x_ns_sku_id=17592316137379&mrk_rec=1&_x_ads_channel=google&_x_gmc_account=710728018&_x_login_type=Google&_x_ads_account=2720833615&_x_ads_set=20881259031&_x_ads_id=157084827757&_x_ads_creative_id=685503037149&_x_ns_source=g&_x_ns_gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgZn775S-hQMVQ6RmAh1znwPLEAQYAyABEgLvE_D_BwE&_x_ns_placement=&_x_ns_match_type=&_x_ns_ad_position=&_x_ns_product_id=710728018-17592316137379&_x_ns_target=&_x_ns_devicemodel=&_x_ns_wbraid=Cj4KCAjwt-OwBhAqEi4AM9Mc22mlywXzVzZmCxR0Sa9Bj2rouLgFnBeWO9MwQjUZV84pVg3EfWH-0FUmGgJArA&_x_ns_gbraid=0AAAAAo4mICHUJl-Mx1R4jk-6QBthiNsda&_x_ns_targetid=pla-2266977884815&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgZn775S-hQMVQ6RmAh1znwPLEAQYAyABEgLvE_D_BwE

It doesn't worry me as long as they leave our chooks and curtains alone.

Ukraine is in a bad way. They've basically run out of Patriot and other air defence missiles. Russia has been hammering them with missile attacks and most of them are now getting through. Yesterday they destroyed one of Ukraine's major power stations near Kyiv. On the front it's not much better as artillery stocks are critically low. Ukrainian artillery is rationed to the point where the Russian artillery is outgunning them 10 to 1. Things are not looking good; it's now six months that Ukraine aid has been blocked in the U.S. congress. Biden is part of the problem as well. There's still a few billion left in the presidential drawdown authority that he won't release. I don't know whether that's intentional or not as the PDA is a complicated beast full of bureaucracy and creative accounting.

Ukraine is losing territory every day now, but at least they are only small gains by the Russians at this stage. The risk is the Ukrainian front collapsing due to lack of ammunition and Russia making large gains. I think putler has the idea that whatever he can grab now, he will be able to keep. Some help from Europe is on the way, but the question is when it will arrive. The president of the Czech Republic (an absolute legend and one of Ukraine's strongest allies) has organised a drive to source 800,000 155mm shells from various suppliers around the world. This has since turned into about a million, so will be a good help if it arrives soon. Also the European Parliament has voted to suspend the approval process for the European Council's budget until Ukraine is given seven Patriot systems.

Speaking of Indians, here's Freddie Mercury and his mum.

56 minutes ago, old man emu said:

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

There is also the fact of dispersed concerns. Is a resident of the Northern Rivers of NSW as concerned about the drying of the Murray-Darling system as they would be about flood mitigation on those Northern Rivers?

 

Are you as annoyed as I am that the NSW Government has abandoned the construction of a tunneled highway from the Sydney Basin to Lithgow? Probably not if you don't have to travel that route. Such a highway would dramatically improve access to the West, and at the same time make life for those who choose to live in the Blue Mountains a quieter place and one in which going to the local shops was not a battle with traffic generated by people simply crossing the Mountains.

 

Those of you living in other States and Territories no doubt can provide your own local examples . 

I think about NSW three times a year (State of Origin series). Although I am forever grateful they took Barnaby back.

I have a question. As far as I know, all the new phones have non removable batteries. What happens when the battery dies?

7 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

I am not sure 1m people being without mobile phones is going to take them back 20 years.

They won't be without phone service; they just have to upgrade and buy new phones that are either 5G or 4G+VoLTE capable. 4G phones without VoLTE capability will still be able to send and receive data but not voice calls.

18 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

Even make your own vodka bottles out of them if that's what you want.

And they wouldn't be as easy to break as the ceramic one if you happened to over-indulge.

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

The NP can dictate anything at all to his lot...

I'm not so sure about that. Federally, LNP members sit in Canberra with the party that held their seat before the amalgamation. Dutton had always been a Liberal before the creation of the LNP and sits with the Liberals in Canberra. Before the last election, there were twenty nine federal LNP MPs and Senators. Only eight sat with the Nationals and twenty one sat with the Liberals. At an organisational level, the LNP is a division of the Liberal Party and an affiliate of the National Party.

The legal difference between the toy spud guns and the potato/orange cannons is that the cannon uses explosive gases, whereas the toy spud gun has a compressed spring which releases pushing compressed air to fire the potato pellet. There's always a lot of twists and turns between interpretations of what constitutes a toy gun vs an imitation firearm vs something that would be considered a firearm. A good example is this ceramic vodka bottle pictured below. They are made in Ukraine and hold 100ml of vodka. They have a big cork in the barrel end where the vodka is filled and dispensed. In every state and territory they are legal and considered by the police to be just what they are - a ceramic bottle. Federal customs consider them to be an imitation firearm and the importation of them requires the same permit as required to import a real handgun.

A Kennedy campaign director was addressing supporters and told them the primary goal is to ensure Biden isn't elected. She said Biden is the common enemy of both the Republicans and the Kennedy team. Kennedy is bleeding votes from Trump and Biden, but more so from Biden. The campaign director went on to say that in the states that the Republicans can't win, votes should be given to Kennedy to stop Biden reaching the needed 270 electoral college votes to win. She said if no candidate reaches the minimum, congress decides who will be president, and as it's a Republican majority, they'll pick Trump. So either way, Trump winning outright or Kennedy getting enough votes so that no candidate reaches the 270, it's win/win for Trump.

If Kennedy wins the election for Trump, the likely reward would be a position for Kennedy in the Trump administration. As if one nutcase wasn't enough. Kennedy for health secretary.

A tech person was being interviewed on the ABC radio today and she said up to a million people could be affected. That's a lot of new phone sales. I might start looking for a new one now and get in before the rush.

Super King Air if my memory is correct.