old man emu

Buffalo wings and Budweiser

A gripe. A bloke was replacing a batten light fitting with an oyster light fitting in the boot room this morning. Things were going along reasonably smoothing, including the usual stuff ups and accessibility difficulties, but finally the fitting was in place and all that was needed to do was insert the three wires into the terminal block in the light fitting. How many of you can quickly put your hand on a #0 Phillips Head screwdriver? That is what was needed to secure those wires into the terminal block. Luckily the bloke had one, but I'm sure that they put those weird sized screws in to prevent your average mug from playing with electricity. Another thing I noticed was that the terminal block had the input holes marked for Active, Neutral and Earth. With an incandescent light, it doesn't matter which side of the fitting the Active and Neutral are connected to, however, the fitting is for LED lights. An LED has two pins – anode (positive or incoming) and cathode (negative or outgoing). I found out that it only works when its anode is connected to the Active wire. I figured that if the Active and Neutral were not connected as indicated, the LED wouldn't work. Here's a diagram of an LED circuit.

This morning dawned overcast, so I took a look at the weather radar. There was an indication of light to moderate rain moving towards my place from the west. Another look around midday showed that although there were areas of rain approaching, the main body seems to have split up as usual and will go around my place. Waste my time checking the debris screen on my rainwater collection system.

More "not usual" than "unusual". The "not usual" idea comes from the fact that what happened in Spain was something that the current population has never experienced. Remember that maps are produced that show the expected areas of flooding from 100 year and 500 year floods. No one alive today has a personal memory of what happened 100 years ago. There are people who are centenarians, but they would have been toddlers at best 100 years ago. The Sydney Basin is a good example of history either being forgotten, or other factors influencing flooding. Floods along the Hawkesbury River, which forms the western boundary of the Basin, have been recorded from the earliest days of European settlement. Steps have been taken to use the knowledge of those historical floods to minimise damage. However, the nature of the land use has changed dramatically. Over the past 40 years, and more specifically in the past 10 to 15 years, vast areas of that Basin have been converted from pasture/forest/bushland to residential occupation. That has resulted in a high percentage of that land, which was able to absorb heavy rainfall, and slow the flow of what could not be absorbed, in become impervious to water, resulting in rapid drainage into the natural watercourses which quickly overflow and start to make the water back up and flow well away across floodplains where housing and industry have been built without proper assessment of the effects of making those areas impervious.

It's not too important to dwell on those two particular vehicles. I was simply exploring the cost of hydrogen fuel, if its use was widespread amongst the general public. The two test models could well be called prototypes, or proof of concept, and items falling into those categories are always way more expensive than they become when they go into mass production.

Got this from here: https://www.carsguide.com.au/ev/advice/how-economical-are-hydrogen-fuel-cell-cars-88672 A comparison between the Hyundai Nexo and Toyota Mirai (both of which are available here in tiny numbers as evaluation and government fleet vehicles) showed that either vehicle could travel 100km in freeway conditions on between 0.76kg (Mirai) and 0.9kg (Nexo) of hydrogen. Since the vehicles both have tanks of about 5.5kg capacity, that gives them plenty of range. Let's say 1 kg/100 kms. That's 550 kms which is said to be the range of my ICE with a 55 litre tank. The catch is the current wholesale price of hydrogen. At $15 or so a kilo, filling each car is about the same as filling a petrol car with a 50-litre tank. However, pundits predict that price will fall, but where it will ultimately land is anybody’s guess. The $15 quoted in the article may be a bit high. In Australia, it is estimated that if green hydrogen were produced from high-quality onshore wind generation with a capacity factor of 45%, the cost would range from A$3.10-3.60/kg in 2020 to A$2.70-3.20/kg in 2030.

We're a weird mob! If you think about the acceptance of gun control in Australia, there didn't seem to be much protest about it. It must have been a gradual thing. I can remember in the 60s, kids had air rifles. Shotguns and .22 rifles were commonplace. I remember my dad taking me out once to shoot kangaroos with a borrowed .303 rifle. And I went pig shooting armed with a .22. I don't know when firearms licensing came in. I can remember the gun buyback after Port Arthur. We filled a decommissioned holding cell with Otto bins stuffed full of firearms several times between pickups. After that we were often tasked with doing firearms storage checking, if we had a bit of free time between break & enters and shoppies. (Ah! The good old days when you didn't spend your shift dealing with domestics of the lowest order.) I've no interest in getting a firearms licence. I like the engineering of firearms, but don't have much interest in either hunting or target shooting. However, it's nice to know that the authorities know that the law-abiding people have at least completed some rudimentary firearms safety training, and where their firearms are located.

The one you have is classed as circulated and would be worth up to five dollars.

Me name's not Someone, but here's your answer. The inner tube measures 100mm of rain. The outer housing collects excess rain up to 250mm in total until measured separately in the tube. When the measuring tube is full, additional rain overflows into the outer cylinder. So this one would record 350mm of rain. Normal practice is to read and empty the rain gauge at 9:00 am daily.

Political Correctness is increasing the content of Autocorrect. In another post I used the word "manpower". For a laugh, I kept the word but struck through it to indicate that I was crossing it out. I then typed in "personpower", and Autocorrect accepted it. I'm reading Orwell's 1984 and what happened with personpower made me wonder if we are not being led subtly into accepting Newspeak.

Right now I'd like 25mm falling steadily over 24 hours.

To be fair to Woolies and Coles and the like, imagine how much cash, in both notes and coin, they would have to have on hold if lots of people took advantage of cashout. The logistics and security would be a nightmare. Also, while shifting cash in metropolitan areas is not too expensive if you look at the manpower personpower and vehicle costs involved, but when you have to move cash over the typical distances between regional centres, the costs rise rapidly.

If so, his re-election slogan would have been, "I'll be back".

Latest modelling tips a fourth La Niña for Australia in five years before the end of 2024. For Australia, La Niña would increase the prospects of a wet spring and summer, and to a lesser degree, potentially subdue extreme summer heat. The ENSO Outlook is currently at La Niña Watch, meaning there remain some signs that a La Niña may form later in 2024. A La Niña Watch does not guarantee that a La Niña will develop. Additionally, the chance of a La Niña event developing in the coming months has decreased compared to recent outlooks. Around my way, it's looking like a 100 to 1 shot that La Niña will happen. However, every dark cloud has its silver lining. This year's winter crops are being harvested, and this year there doesn't seem to be the likelihood of thunderstorms or even general rain. At the moment I have 10/10 blue with a gentle breeze. Quite pleasant.

That's irony. All your working life you are being controlled by the hands of the clock. Wake-up time; sign-on time; smoko time; lunch time; knock-off time; dinner time; bed time. Then you reach retirement age when those things don't matter any more, but they give you a bloody timepiece so you can still know what time it is.

YOu know that it's dry when you cop a dust storm in mid-Spring.

It's Halloween! I want candy.

It's crystal clear that Harris is the logical choice, however she has three major disadvantages in US politics: 1. She's female. 2. She's not a WASP. 3. She's not a celebrity. I'm afraid that the only thing that will flow from this election is Orange-aid for the wealthy.

I just kicked off a spammer.

For the past six weeks NSW tax dollars have been at work remaking 2 kms of the highway beside my place. Amazingly, they said that they would be doing the work from 16 Sept to 31 October. Today the traffic control people pulled down the multitude of warning signs, packed them up and disappeared into the desert sands. Job finished on schedule. While I'm happy for their success, I'm also happy that I'll no longer be woken at 7:00 am by the beeping of their machinery. Also I'll no longer be held up a hundred metres from my gate by traffic controllers.

A bloke wants something more for his quid than some old crow.

Lend us a quid?

Stupidity or lack of proper education by the manufacturers? The very things you describe about the clothing worn when these chemicals are used on farms are the very comments the old cockies made at the Men's Shed. They also spoke of being splashed by arsenicals which dipping sheep. Just think of when you started operating under OH&S regulations. The Robens Report, released in 1972, was a major turning point in Australian OHS laws. Based on similar moves happening around the world at the same time, this report saw Australian OHS laws change from highly technical to more generalised. Previously, Australian OHS laws were focused entirely on factory-based hazards. Worse, by focusing purely on static features in the workplace, they completely overlooked matters such as the way work is organised. Instead of focusing on details like exactly how high safety barriers had to be, the new approach towards workplace safety was much broader, encouraging proactive measures and more comprehensive solutions. For those who entered the workforce before the 1970s, the change in culture to accept OH&S practices has been hard. Most of those pre-1970 workers are retired or dead. However, it is not hard to enter a workplace today and identify unsafe practices. For example,next time you are the Men's Shed, look for the test tag on a corded, portable electric tool. Was the tool tested within the previous 6 months? Since 1972 greater emphasis has been placed on safety in the workplace with a much wider emphasis than on merely preventing physical injury. Just look at the numbers of workers who are treated for stress and psychological ailments.

I believe that if you live in a Western-style society, abiding by the man-made laws of that society, you would be living a life that is the goal of all religions. At the end of your life, if there is a Supreme Being, you either get the reward offered to staunch followers of religion. If there is no Supreme Being and it's "lights out", what have you lost? “The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interrèd with their bones” is spoken by Mark Antony in Act III, Scene 2 of Julius Caesar. That's the irony of living a "good life".

Which is worse for the planet - a few tonnes of a natural substance whose dangers are well known and catered for, or millions of tonnes of manmade chemicals which have only existed for 80-odd years at most and whose long term effects on everything on the planet are nor fully comprehended? I was talking to the blokes at the Men's Shed today about the bans on commonly used herbicides and pesticides due to their being the causative agent in diseases like Parkinson's. The consensus was that it was the improper handling of these chemicals that caused the greatest dangers. Their thought was that it was user incompetence in very many forms that let them harm the planet,as they acknowledge that the chemicals were life-threatening, because that is what they were made for.