old man emu

2 hours ago, Marty_d said:

Who'd want to visit the USA?

I'd like to take a trip to the USA solely for the purpose of viewing some of the magnificent scenery. I'd love to drive Route 66. However, as has been said, it is a dangerous place due to the human inhabitants. One could say that only 0.001% or less of the population is pshcyo, but when you have 300 million people, 0.001% still is a lot. And that's the diagnosable psychos. There are also heaps of people who just don't like strangers.

I've ressurected this thread. It is interesting to see what we were saying in 2020/21 and to compare it to what we are saying in 2025.

Do you realise that if you have participated in this thread, and posted any comment that is not a posite reference to Trump personally, or his policies, you have given US Immigration cause to deny you access to the United States? Also, if you happened to have a few puffs of weed 50+ years ago in your youth, you can't come in.

So, if you had thoughts of watching any 2026 FIFA World Cup games in the USA, think about your chances of getting into teh country.

Actor Julian McMahon, son of former Prime Minister Sir William McMahon has passed away from cancer.

I just had a thought! 

If you compare the US system of government with Canada and Australia which are of similar political age as the USA, you get the feeling that the USA's is stuck with the political concepts of the late 18th Century and has not evolved to deal with the influences acting upon its people. We might think that Australia's Constitution is rigid, but we have, on occasion, been able to update it to meet the desires of the people.

It seems that the political evolution of the government of the USA reached an evolutionary dead-end in the early 19th Century. That is probably why emerging Nations don't want anything to do with the type of democracy that the USA espouses. 

Don't forget Cesar Romero

Then there was the Findus bolog-neighs.

We don't hear much about how our Bushmasters are doing in the Ukraine. Here's an interesting video about them there.

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

"date of conception of Australia" (as a unified nation with a common purpose) was the day of Australian Federation on 1st January 1901.

So true as it applies to Federation, and maybe 1st January should be our National Day. However, we simplistically say that Australia began on 26th January 1788. That was the date of conception of the first colony of several that were eventually to come together as one under a Federal Constitution. 

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

it all comes back to whether they are economically extractable

1 hour ago, octave said:

I take that to mean "available" as in what we are able to mine.

I agree with you both. I was taking a shot at the poor choice of word. If an "authority" is going to make a statement that is important, then care must be taken to vet the words used to avoid confusion.

28 minutes ago, octave said:

Despite an ever-increasing demand for copper, there is more of the metal available today than at any other time in history.

Whoa!

That's a bit incomprehensible. We are told that there is a finite amount of everything on this planet. Therefore it is a falsehood to say "there is more of the metal available today than at any other time in history". It is simply that our digging up and refining has accumulated more copper. In other words. if we piled up all the pure copper that has been by mankind over time, the pile is now higher than it was yearfs ago.

As the 26th January is for many Austrlians, both Non-Indigenous and Indigenous, the 4th of July is a big thing for the United States. For the US, it is a celebration of the formal declaration of the 13 Colonies' independence from the British Crown  on that day in 1776. However, the 13 Colonies actually had been independent since the signing of the Treaty of Paris on 3rd September 1783. As with all Treaties, it contained a number of Articles stating what was being agreed to. Articles included fishing rights and restoration of property and prisoners of war, and set the boundaries between British North America, later called Canada, and the United States. Only Article 1 of the treaty, which acknowledges the United States' existence as free, sovereign, and independent states, remains in force.

One could claim that Australia was concieved on that date, since the myth is that by granting independence to the American colonies, Britain lost a place to dump its convicts. That is not fully correct that the Americas were a dumping ground for British felons. It is commonly maintained that the vast majority of felons taken to America were political criminals, not those guilty of social crimes such as theft; for example. It is estimated that between 1718 and 1776 about 30,000 convicts were transported to at least nine of the continental colonies, whereas between 1700 and 1775 about 250,000 to 300,000 white immigrants came to mainland North America as a whole. It was noted of Virginia that "the crimes of which they were convicted were chiefly political, and the number transported for social crimes was never considerable." The colony of Georgia, by contrast, was planned specifically to take in debtors and other social criminals, "the worthy poor" in a philanthropic effort to create a rehabilitative colony where prisoners could earn a second chance at life, learning trades and working off their debts.

Between 1776 and 1783,  Britain could no longer transport felons to the American colonmies. Leading up to the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the British government must have been looking for new places to send felons. Expeditions examined the west coast of Africa, but they were unsuitale due to disease and their inability to support European agricultural methods. As well, the geo-political situation in Asia, the East Indies and Southwest Pacific demanded that the British get a foothold before other arising European powers snapped up what there was to snap up.

Based on the reports of James Cook, and the prompting by Sir Joseph Banks, the British decided that the east coast of Terra Australis would be worth an attempt to establish a colony.Under Banks's guidance, the American Loyalist James Matra, who had also travelled with Cook, produced a new plan for colonising New South Wales in 1783. Matra argued that the country was suitable for plantations of sugar, cotton and tobacco; New Zealand timber and hemp or flax could prove valuable commodities; it could form a base for Pacific trade; and it could be a suitable compensation for displaced American Loyalists. American Loyalists were those living in the 13 Colonies who did not want to break with British rule during the American Revolution.

It should be noted that Cook only made landfall in two places on the east coast - Botany Bay, in a Temperate climatic area and Cape York in a Tropical climatic area. The British already knew from their expeditions to tropical West Africa that such places were not suitable for colonisation by Europeans.

It seems to me that the Americans have forgotten the chronology of their country's evolution. Instead of celebrating the day on which a declaration of why the Thirteen Colonies regarded themselves as independent sovereign states no longer subject to British colonial rule, perhaps they should celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Paris on 3rd September 1783 which granted the Colonies their freedom and sovereignty.

Why should the 4th of July be recognised in Australia? Although I maintain it is the inaccurate date for the Americans to celebrate, they will continue to do so as part of their culture. If we accept their mistake, then we can apply that date as the date of conception of Australia without rocking the boat. 

Is a dendochronology lab a tree-ring circus?

I agree with Onetrack's suggestion that it is the change in velocity over time (acceleration) that acts on the vestibular systyem of the inner ear. Octave mentions being ill on winding roads. That indicates sideways movement affected the vestibular system. If you are a passenger in car, the bad driving rechnique of the driver can create acceleration effects. (I'm using "accleration" as a term for inceasing and decreasing velocity so I don have to write "deceleration")

I hear that his latest is to stop supplying the Ukraine with missiles on the grounds that the USA doesn't have enough for its own defence.

30 minutes ago, facthunter said:

What a crock of BS that article is. Nev

You have obviously never suffered from motion sickness.

6 hours ago, spacesailor said:

( on the Blue mountains ) were waved on by the ' traffic police ' ,  because only 4wd 

Vehicles could navigate the detour,  through a flooded road

That's a special case. The Police/SES had deemed it safe for 4WDs & trucks to go through the water. What I wanted to highlight was that doing such a thing in the circumstances that often lead to vewhicles being washed off the road is something to be prevented by all possible means. Most frequently you hear of these incidents happening on rural roads where the safety of the crossing is not known.

I think that it should be an offence to drive a vehicle into flood waters to maybe make people think again before doing it. At the moment there does not seem to be a trafic law that covers thyt sort of stupidity. Negligent or Dangerous Driving requires that there is danger to other persons or property. That makes them pretty high level offences. 

A couple of years ago I got more than enough rain. I've seen what this place is like in drought. That's why I get concerned when there is no rain for a long time.

If the weather is with you and you have the logistics down pat, I can't see why you can't go from groung breaking to moving in within three months. I would say if a builder had a clear run the only delays would be from getting building inspectors to arrive on schedule.

If there is one EV manufacturer who is likely to fail, it's TESLA. Too over-the-top for the general population. You don't see a Ferrari or Rolls in every garage in the suburbs. People simply want an inexpensive, reliable passenger vehicle. That's the market that the Chinese seem to be aiming for.

Over the next couiple of days the WEweather Bureau says that the coast of NSW will cop a hammering from a dumbell of two Low pressure centres just off the coast. I looked at the expected rainfall areas oiver thoise two days and, as a ereult, I am considering doing a lot of laundry because it will be planty dry around my way.

4 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Still quite low, but, he was talking about Carlton, after all..

Oy! Watchit, mate.

I find it mind-boggling just how many bytes have been created and stored since Mankind started storing information this way.