old man emu

On a trip to Sydney and back, my ICE uses more fuel coming home because I have to climb from near sea level in Sydney to about 3,500 ft at the top of the Blue Mountains. The gradient of tht climb is steeper than the climb coming from the other side on the way to Sydney. Also I don't have to "drive" the car from the top to the bottom when I an on my way to Sydney. The need for more fuel to go up a steep hill is commonsense. The same commonsense that applies to an EV, hybrid, plug in or diesel.

Gripe: Because of my soft-touch keyboard I keep having to go back into posts to correct typos. I think that I might be being pressing the keys too softly. Also, I often type "the" as "teh". That's muscle memorty, I think. Also I keep hitting adjacent keys. These things are set to try us.

Trump's latest threat to bomb Iran to pieces surely must raise the hackles of every other country in the World. Maybe it's time to decalre war on the USA. The first step should be to evict all US miltary from bases in those countries. Let's start painting "Yankee go home!" on a few walls. Strangely, I feel sympathy for the American People who are suffering becasue of the mistake they made due to the effects of the jingoistic propaganda they were raised with.

I don't know the details of the latest media reports on how far an EV will go on a charge, but I wonder if a lot of the problem comes from peoples' ignorance of how to operate a new technology. Perhaps people do not know how to properly manage batteries.

Anybody intersted in talking about EVs?

Ice cores are great for paleo-meterology, but contemporaneous sampling is what is needed for contemporary analysis. Besides, ice cores can't help us monitor CFCs since they did not exist before the middle of tthe 20th Century.

Everyone goes on about rising CO2 levels in the atmoshere. But rising compared to what? How does science determine a base value for comparison. There must be some way to determine exactly what "fresh air" is. Just south of the isolated north-west tip (Woolnorth Point) of Tasmania, at a place called Cape Grim, the Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) fund and operates the Cape Grim atmospheric observational facility. The Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station first began measuring the composition of the atmosphere in April 1976 and has been in continuous operation since that date. The air sampled arrives at Cape Grim after long trajectories over the Southern Ocean, under conditions described as ‘baseline’. This baseline air is representative of a large area of the Southern Hemisphere, unaffected by regional pollution sources. Air samples are analysed at the station to determine concentrations of greenhouse and ozone-depleting gases, other air pollutants, including aerosols and reactive gases, and radon. Since sampling began at Cape Grim, more that 3 billion measurements have been taken. Among these are measurements of greenhouse gases (GHGs), including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and synthetic GHGs such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). The number of atmospheric greenhouse gases measured at Cape Grim now exceeds 50, as well as concentrations of natural and anthropogenic aerosols (particles such as sea salt, mineral dust, carbon particles etc). Some of the air samples collected at Cape Grim have been archived for further analyses as required. This picture shows some of the samples stored in "fresh air archives". Because we have these measurements and samples going back 50 years, we are in the position of being able to say that the atmoshere has changed over that time. Happily, all is not doom and gloom. The growth of some GHGs (for example methane) has slowed recently and some are in decline (CFCs and halons for example). Read more here: https://capegrim.csiro.au/

A concern that I have does not involve future terrorist activities of the wives, but the attitudes of their children. Those kids have grown up an an certain environment. They have been indoctrinated by the controllers of that environment. Just consider the outlook of German kids who grew up under the NAZI regime. At the end of WWII, when the world hey grew up in came to an end, they lost all that they knew. They had to undergo education to let them learn that what they believed in, one could say their morality was not the truth. I wonder how many of them were mever able to fully change their ideas. The same can be said for all children, no matter what ideological system they grew up in. Isn't the Aussie Spirit we try to instill in our children just another ideological system? I say, let those adults amongst them who were Australian citizens, return. However, let us give the children of those people all the help we can to detoxify from what they have been lead to believe was acceptable.

Unfortunately, due to the mesh that is global economics, if the USA collapses, then so does the global economy. Don't know about the civic-minded bit, but the rest sure describes China. I really wonder if it is the goal of China to implant its form of communism on the rest of the world. I don't think so. I think China is happy with economic dominance. It has fought economic fire with economic fire.

No koalas around the proposed site of the windfarm near me. However, it would be good if they got rid of the pigs and foxes. I mentioned in another thread that BEFORE approval was given for construction a two-year study of flight patterns of bats and birs had to be conducted. I can't see the developers killing off bats and birds. I suppose a good anti-windfarm claim could be an application of the butterfly fluttering in the Amazon causes hurricanes in the Carribean.

Cobalt is an essential trace mineral for ruminants (cattle, sheep, goats) used by rumen microorganisms to synthesize vitamin B12 (cobalamin). It is critical for energy production, glucose synthesis, protein metabolism, and growth. Deficiencies cause severe loss of appetite, anemia, "wasting disease," and poor productivity, with young, rapidly growing animals and sheep being most susceptible. https://csiropedia.csiro.au/cobalt-deficiency-and-the-cure-for-coast-disease/

I suppose we should talk about the latest "attempt" on Trump. This the resolution of this incident is becoming a twisted tale, and we may end up with a piece of material that has more holes than a string vest. I invite you to watch this video which raises doubts about the inital statements issue by the White House. What has been said, and what has been published from other sources, coupled with the way the White House has been shown to handle the truth loosely, raises the level of our scepticism. If you do watch the video, skip the ad which runs from 3:00 to 4:10.

What is the accepted design of a passport? The modern passport was universally adopted and standardized in 1920. The passport takes the form of a booklet bearing the name and emblem of the issuing government.

You've got to be happy to know that we have the best politicians than money can buy.

Just about every successful business that grew on Australia soil between 1900 and 1975 has been sold out to international conglomerates who immediately gutted them. That has left the populous at the mercy of decisions made far, far away. After WWII, the cry in Britain was "Produce or Perish". We must start producing again. However, as has been said here, and quite correctly, the country does not have the money to build, or rebuild what we had. I spoke elsewhere of the windfarm being developed near my place. Who is building it? A Chinese company. I drove through a wine producing region recently and saw piles of ripped out vines drying in paddocks. The same happened to the citrus inductry along the Murray. Like some Peter's ice cream? Owned by a company whose head office is in a tine Yorkshire village. What about a Four-n-Twenty pie at the footy? Overseas owned. We don't own our own country. We are just renting it from absentee landlord. This might be a more appropriate National Anthem: Poor bugger me, Gurindji Me bin sit down this country Long time before Lord Vestey All about land belongin' to we Oh, poor bugger me Gurindji

One of our Liberal Senators is calling on the Government to have a serious chat with Trump. I don't think the chat should be too long. Just two words - F... off! The inflation figures come out today. They are up. That means interest rates will go up. Trump might not be dropping explosives on us, but he's certainly hitting us where it hurts. Not only us, but every country in the world, including China and Russia. The UAE is pulling out of OPEC. That can only mean further rises in oil prices since the UAE is avery major producer. Enough is enough! Trump and his cronies must be removed! Let's see the American people do something for the whole world.

Ah! The problem with trying to represent the spoken word with the written word. One loses the nuances.

Just watched this video, from a reasonably reliable commentator. In it the presenter indicates that questions are being asked about the level of security at the location. Before anything happened, people were commenting that it wasn't as tight as would normally be expected. A theory being proposed is that the incident was a set up to bolster Trump's popularity rating which at the moment is the lowest of any President since Carter. It is also reported in the video that earlier in the night, the husband of Leavitt advised a well-known reporter to be careful. That could have been out of context with eventual events as any right wing reporter could become a target at some time. Like anything surrounding Trump, the reason for this incident might be real or might be an example of fake news, this time gnerated by the Administration. Oh I wish that Trump would go. I'd really like to get back to important things, like the price of tea in China.

This time I was being serious.

But how does a seller deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash into a bank account. Here in NSW deposits of $10,000+ in cash must be documented. I remember having to do so when I was a cop and was depositing seized drug money at my local bank into the holding account that the police had.

About the "attempted assassination". The fellow who was involved in the incident recently has been charged with attempting to assassinate Trump, and others. Once again I come to the conclusion that US law is foolish. Just think about it. Trump was well away from the the likely entrances to the room and there were lots of people between those entrances and Trump. The fellow no doubt had the intention to harm Trump, but hardly a viable opportunity, given the layout of the site and the presence of armed security people. In my mind alledging an offence of "attempting" in this case is akin to charging someone with a thought crime. But we are talking about Yanks here, so anything goes. As an aside, I'd like to know what firearm fired the bullet that hit the security guard. The guard survived the hit due to a bullet resistant vest, so I reckon that the firearm was a handgun, not a rifle that the fellow was supposed to have fired. All I can say is that the incident was a missed opportunity. OH! There's a knock at my door. Must be the AFP acting on behalf of the CIA.

Like all new things, if they create a problem, eventually a solution will be found. I heard that solar panels are hard to do anything with, but how long have we have lots of them? I bet people are working feverously to develop ways to get something useful from the junk. I have faith in the fact that someone eventually finds a way to utilise the smell of a turd.

Here's a link to the project's website: https://milpullingwindfarm.com/

Just to clarify teh matter of the US entry into WWII. The actions of the Japanese Empire were as a result of the USA's trade embargo on oil to Japan. Therefore Japan set a goal of capturing the oil fields of Borneo. Like all good politicians, Japan camouflaged its goal by declaring that its actions were to liberate colonial South-East Asia and establish an economic zone controlled by Asian peoples. The attack on Pearl Harbour and invasion of the Philipines and South-East Asia would have brought about a war between the USA and Japan. However, Hitler buggered things by declaring war on the USA a few days later. If he had pulled his head in, the USA might not have entered the Eurpoean war. Not likely, I suppose, since the USA was arming Britain. But who knows? There would have been two separate wars. If there had been two separate wars, the USA might not have come out of the period as economically powerful as it did and Europe and Japan so weak. That would have made the modern world a different place. One could say that Hitler's declaration of war was the "sliding door moment" in human history.

As I said, I drove down to Sydney last week. For most of the way from Mudgee to Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains the dead trunks of thousands of trees destroyed by bushfires in 2019 stand as ghostly reminders of the ferocity of our bushfires. While most of the damage was done to native forest, there are hectares and hectares of pine tree trunks marking to path of the fires.