old man emu

A belief in an afterlife seems to be something inherent in mammals (and birds) which live in small groups where each member recognises all others. When one of the group dies the rest gather and perform some sort of behaviour that we humans anthropomorphise as something grief for the loss. Note that that behaviour does not apply to dead members of other groups. As human society developed, there were the mundane things of survival and the celebratory things. After a lifetime where the mundane was ever so much more than the celebratory, is it any wonder that the main hope of life after death was a time of fun and games? Look at the ancient Mediterranean cultures. Their afterlife was one of relaxation in pleasant surroundings. For the Vikings it was music and feasting. For Hindus, it is another go on the roundabout. However for Christians it's all harps and hallelujahs. Christ said that his heavenly father would build a house in heaven for those who died in His grace. No talk of choir practice all day long. It must have been one of those misogynistic, sourpuss Fathers of the Church sometime in the First Millennium who decided to foist that sitting on clouds playing the harp and getting a Handel on a boring song on the faithful. As for the Muslims and their 72 virgins, remember that virginity is like a party balloon - one prick and it's gone.

You expect me to fork out quid pro crow?

When the time comes to sell up, why don't you contact Escape to the Country and let them take a look at your place for a possible choice for an episode?

I had to laugh this morning when I saw the crow eyeing off the mouse carcases I had thrown in the paddock. You could almost hear it thinking. "Why aren't they running away?"

That's OK. She had her gyno insert a split pin.

Of course I knew that she was taking the piss. I think she did a really good job of doing that.

If you get the chance, try another American chain - Carl's Jr. I used to got to Hungry Jacks, but they are only slightly better than Maccas, so I have lunch at Carl's when I go to Dubbo. They don't microwave the buns, so they hold together. They don't shred the lettuce, you get a good part of a leaf. Their chips are crispy. Their "All Day Meal" in medium is $9.95 with a free refill of the drink. Even so, you can't beat a real Aussie hamburger from the Acropolis, run by Nick the Greek.

Bigger isn't necessarily better - Just look at the USA.

I wonder how far it would go if you complained to Fair Trading that your Big Mac wasn't as advertised?

All well and good for use in a shed, or location where the mice are up high, but the little buggers in my place run across the floor. To trap them, I only have to place the traps along the skirting boards and they run onto them. I think that the reason these traps are banned in some States is due to animal anti-cruelty advocates. The mice struggle to free themselves, but do not die quickly. The ones that get caught after I go to bed are still alive when I get up, so they are only trapped for a maximum of seven hours. As soon as I hear the squeak , or check the traps in the morning, I sink the trap and the mouse in a bucket of water and they are dead within two minutes. And is it said that drowning is the most peaceful way to die. With those bucket traps, the mice keep swimming until they are exhausted and down. It's a sort of torture.

Update on the mouse traps: The morning after the first time I used the trapos, I threw the carcases out into the paddock. I just saw a crow take a good look at them and then grab one and fly off. Now its mate is choosing its breakfast serving.

My first response was to chuckle at the wit and satire of it. However, I cannot go past offering a word of caution to her should she wish to take up a career that depends strongly on clear and concise communication, both verbal and written. As I read her contribution, I pictured a bewigged and black-gowned figure, much accustomed to using the appellation "M'Lud", confusing twelve good men and true with such obscure language. I saw someone similar to the character Sam Ballard QC of Rumpole of the Bailey. Yet the jury was more often swayed by the plain and simple language of Rumpole himself. The best of communicators write and speak the language of the Plebeians, not the Patricians.

As you know, my dwelling has been unoccupied for some time and is surrounded by grazing paddocks. Mice have made use of it, but now I want them out. Their previous generations have made points of entry into the wall frames, so there is an unpleasant smell, as well as noise as they scamper about. The usual trapping means are not very effective and prove that the second mouse gets the cheese. However, I have come across a very effective means of trapping them. Do you remember the story of Br'er Rabbit and the Tar baby? Well I found something similar. They are simply a tray filled with a very sticky material. When the mouse puts a paw on to the sticky stuff it is stuck and cannot pull away, no matter how much it struggles. To increase the effectiveness of the process, I bait the trap with some peanut butter, which mice seem to love. After a mouse traps itself, it will squeak, which acts like an alarm. I just pick up the trap and mouse and drop them in a bucket of water where the mouse drowns in a few moments. This quick kill stops the mouse from imbedding itself in the sticky stuff too much, and it can be pulled off using, ironically, a pair of rat-nosed pliers. Then the trap can be put to work again, and again and again. The first night I set out four traps and caught five or six mice between sunset and when I went to bed. Last night I caught two before bed and one overnight. I can't say that I have a plague-like infestation. I think the ones I caught are about all there are. If I keep setting out the traps for a week or two, I think I will have a win. Unfortunately for you Victorians and Tasmanians, these traps are only available to licensed pest exterminators.

It does. That puts that person in the tiny, "trained and experienced operator" group. As for the rest of the newly retired pen pushers ....

Excellent pun!

Holy facial recognition, Batman!

Have they got little batteries in them?

I don't know about other States and Territories, but in NSW when deciding whether or not to grant bail to an accused person, the court must have regard to the matters set out in section 32, so far as they can reasonably be ascertained. No other matters can be considered unless the bail decision relates to an offence for which there is a presumption against bail, or for which there is a requirement that bail is only to be granted in exceptional circumstances The four main criteria in section 32 are: 1. The probability of whether the accused will appear in court in respect of the offence; 2. The interests of the accused person; 3. The protection of alleged victims and their close relatives; and 4. The protection and welfare of the community. As to criterion No. 1, I would say that, unless there is a history of failing to answer bail, there would be a lot of pressure to appear. What you have to look at is whether the person would flee the jurisdiction. In Australia, that usually means leaving the country, and he probably doesn't have a passport. As he has already been charged with an offence in Victoria, extradition from other States and Territories is pretty straight forward. Criterion 2 deals with the right of an accused to obtain legal advice and to engage a person to prepare a defence to the charge. If the accused was responsible for the welfare of others (breadwinner or sole carer), that could be considered. Having a hissy fit about being remanded in custody doesn't make the grade. Criterion 3 is pretty clear. It usually is invoked in domestic violence matters. Criterion 4 is pretty broad in its interpretation. It could be used to stop the activities of a drug dealer, or maybe to stop an arsonist lighting bushfires. Based on my experience, and on precedent, I would say that the idiot stands a good chance of being released from custody, but with new bail conditions that would include Criterion 1 - requirement to report frequently to the Officer in Charge of the nearest police station to his usual place of abode; surrender a passport if held; maybe the lodgement of a monetary bond by another person who undertakes that the accused will answer bail. Criterion 2 - as the offence, while very serious, lacks a very high level of pre-meditation (colliding with another vehicle), it should not be punished until proven. That sounds a bit namby-pamby, but the coach driver whose actions allegedly resulted in the death of ten and the injury to others is at large on bail. Criterion 3 - not applicable in this case. Criterion 4 - suspension of driver's licence. Again, easily circumvented, but if caught driving then you have breach of bail, which is a one-way ticket to the slammer, plus further imprisonment, or fine or both etc, etc.

Realistically, if we want to retain oil as a source of a combustible fuel, there should be a world-wide ban on the use of oil for packaging purposes. Either that, or there should be massive incentives for the establishment of recycling plants to deal with used packaging. Those incentives should also be used to encourage manufacturers to use the recycled plastic. The problem might be the location of the major producers of plastic packaging. It might be that you could identify them by their disinterest in air pollution minimisation. Of course an initial step to preventing oceanic pollution would be a worldwide ban on using the oceans as dumping grounds. Australians might think that we produce masses of plastic waste, but it is only a bucketful in comparison with what is produces by Europeans and Americans. At least when treated sewage is discharged into oceans it is biodegradable.

Those "bureaucratic limits" are for once imposed to prevent untrained and inexperienced operators killing themselves and others as a result of incorrect weight distribution and/or exceeding the combination's gross weight. If ever the epithet "road hog" suited a driver, it suits very many of these operators.

Let's face it. We know how to design a safe, comfortable and attractive vehicle. in which to install something to generate mechanical power. I suspect that the electric motor has reached its zenith, in other words, we've got it sorted. That only leaves for further development a means to carry energy from which mechanical power can be generated that gives the vehicle the range that we have become accustomed to with ICE vehicles. It will be done, eventually.

That one, and similar ones that are simply the drill and countersink are OK if you have two drills so you can have the driver bit in the other one. Poor people like me can only afford one drill, so the switcheroo one is great.

Nobody's mentioned Torx screws in all their interesting designs. It seems that Torx screws were designed to prevent tampering by all but the most determined DIY repairer, or to facilitate assembly utilising robotics. Any screw manufactured from decent materials will do its designed task. The main reason the connection between the screw and the driver fails is over-torquing, or to say it another way, using too much force to get the screw into the material. Because the slot for the driver, whatever the design, has a small surface area, applying too much pressure ( force per unit area) will cause the walls of the slot to fail, throwing the driver out of the slot. Coming from the driver side, too much pressure will damage the face/s of the driver's tip. There are some simple steps one can take to prevent butchering the slot of any screw. Always use a screw whose shank diameter is not too thin, nor too thick for the clamping load that is required. Always drill a pilot hole that is equal to the Minor diameter of the shank, and which takes into account the material the screw is going into. The pilot hole will enable the threads of the screw to cut into the material without them splitting the adjacent fibres as the shank goes into it. It is useful to use a combined pilot hole drill/countersink bit when using countersunk screws as this results in the underside of the head to make more contact with the material, and at the same time not damage the surface. It is useful to lubricate the threads of a screw with a solid lubricant, such as sopa, candle wax, or beeswax. Screws are not "torqued down", so the effect of lubricants on the clamping force is not so critical One thing that can improve the setting of screws and protect both their slots and the driver is to control the force with which they are inserted. Many people use a powered driver, and these now come standard with clutches which disconnect the drive once a desired torque has been reached. The range of desired torques of met by various tools is not constant. Therefore it is necessary to conduct tests to determine which setting for a particular powered driver gives the desired result. This means taking a scrap of the material into which the screw is to be driven and screwing in some screws to find the setting which results in the clutch disengaging when the head of the screw is in the desired position relative to the surface of the material. Putting in screws involves drilling the pilot hole and countersinking, then using a driver bit to drive home the screw. It can be tedious to have to drill the holes; remove the drill, fit a countersink bit and countersink the hole; remove the countersink bit, and then install the driver bit. I found a useful tool which is a changeable tool holder. You simply pull back the black locking collar and insert the other piece so that the end you want is sticking out. I got this at the big green shed with the red hammer logo. The tool is made by Makita.

Looks like he want to bring back the flat-top.

Slotted head; Phillips head and Torx head are common styles used to engage a screwdriver with a screw, and they each have their disadvantages in the way that the driver engages with them. There is another style, which I am starting to see and that is the square cavity, or it's correct name, the Robertson head. We all remember the VHS -v- Beta conflict of the 1970s. Here's a little bit about the Phillips -v- Robertson war of the 1920s.