old man emu

I've mentioned before a defence system, designed and manufactured in Australia, for naval vessels that is acknowedged as the best in the world. Here's another Australian designed and manufactured anti-drone defence system that is already deployed somewhere in Europe.

US presidential candidate selection has become a celebrity contest. The celebrity person is the poster boy of the Party, but not the leader. The leadership is in the hands of faceless men. The billionaires who pour money into the campaigns of candidates are not the ones creating policy. Those donations are for boosting the celebrity of the poster boy. The billionaires don't have a say in policy development. If they do make any suggestions, the backroom boys would ignore them.

It is interesting that Austrlians have moved away from tea drinking to coffee drinking over the past 50 years. I wonder if we can atrtribute it to Italian migrants who introduced the espresso type of coffee? I wonder if Australia's coffee culture is similar to that in any other country. I can't see it being the same as that of the USA, where it seems that filter coffee is the norm.

Would you provide a link or two so we outsiders can see what is happening there, please?

I'm all for the reintroduction of the cubit.

The Mid-term elections are due next year. If the population votes for Democrats and wipe out the Republicans, then the Dems control both Houses, then I'm sure impeachment will occur. However, the chances of a Republican voting for a Democrat are less than a Southern Baptist becoming a Catholic.

Do you think The Administrator could do something to find out where GON's internet address comes from? I reckon it must be somewhere between Neche, North Dakota and Brownsville, Texas.

It says "former president". This indicates that the event happened during the run-up to the 2024 election. The story has been regurgitated. If you are watching YouTube videos you have to check how long ago they were posted.

What about: 1. The SYPAQ's "cardboard drones" are a notable Australian innovation, reported to cost between $1,000 and $5,000 apiece, is made from waxed cardboard and uses off-the-shelf hardware. Very useful in the Ukraine. 2. Ship anti-missile defence system. Declared to be the best in the world. The Yanks creamed their jeans over it. We sell them the hardware, but retain absolute control of the operating software. 3. The Jindavik target drone (now out of date).

POINT 1. I suppose I should have made myself clearer in my comparison of Khan and Hitler. I should have indicated that I meant by Hitler conquered Germany by using psychology as referring to the period from 1925 to 1933. That's when he exposed his Make Germany Great Again ideas to the German people. After those ideas got his Party seats in government (not majority), then he wrangled control of the country and established his dictatorship. From then on he used the power that gave him to let loose his goons. POINT 2. Of course when we talk about thinking of the worst events of history, it is because those events serve as danger signals. What we learn from danger signals adds to our chances to survive. The memory of good events is fleeting, unless the good memeory helps survival, or is pleasuable.

Very few farmers burn stubble now. It is left to stand and rot between seasons to protect the soil and provide a conduit for water to enter the soil by seeping alongside the roots. Come the next sowing season, GPS controlled seeders plant seed between the rows where the previous year's crop grew. It's got to the stage now where the role of the operators of seeding units and even harvesters is just to monitor the operation of the unit and turn it around at the end of a run.

Another of GON's cliche-driven comments. Genghis Khan conquered by the use of force. Hitler conquered Germany by using psychology, and having altered the minds of the German people, controlled them by the use of force.

I was just using tree plantations as an example of renting land for long periods. You are quite correct in saying that monoculture is not good for the land. Imagine the degradation on a 2000 hectare wheat field, and the procedures required to make good the degradation.

Trump's actions against his opponents mirror what Hitler and other dictators have done as means of oppression and control of the people. What I want to draw attention to is that history has given us many examples of economic powers failing becasue of poor financial management. Actually, the same stages apply to so many businesses as well. Grow too fast; rest on ones laurels, and decline.

Trump's tariff on Canadian timber imports have had devastating consequences in the USA. The housing construction industry has gone into a slump because the price of construction timber has risen rapidly. At the same time, Canada has entered into supply deals with Asia, Europe and Australia so that Canada's export income from timber is rising rapidly. What is interesting is that the plan to divert timber exports away from the USA wasn't a knee-jerk reaction. It was the implementation of a plan drawn up years ago and held in abayence until needed. Canadian Prime Minister Carney really sticks it to Trump when he says that Trump said tariffs would make America great again, but in reality they have made Canada global.

What is forgotten is that when renewable energy generators are installed on a farm, the farmer is paid rent by the generating company. Therfore one can say that by entering into the agreement with the company, the farmer is diversify farm income. What right have others to dictate landuse on a farm? Do neighbours have the right to dictate what crops are grown on a farm? Let's say that a turbine has a useful life of 25 years, the farm can bank on a constant income input for that long. Isn't that what was promised in the 70s when farmers were offered rent for the establishment of pine tree plantations?

My objection to wind generation is based on aesthetics. Simply put, I think that these objects destroy the vista. Solar panels are less visually intrusive. HOWEVER, I can see pros and cons for both in an agricultural landscape. Wind generator poles are similar to tree trunks. If one wanted to cultivate plant crops where the generators were located, then one could easily drive around the pole as one does with trees. That can't be done with a field of solar panels. But one can graze sheep and goats where there are panels, and the panels can benefit the stock by providing shade. The panels also seem to alter the micrclimate beneath them, creating better conditions for the growth of fodder plants.

What the thread's title is, is an example of what Humpty Dumpty said, The individual words have their own unique meaning, but taken together, they create something with another meaning. Maybe you could think if some long German words which are combination of individual wods to make a word with a different meaning, for example: Haus + Tür + Schlüssel = Haustürschlüssel (house + door + key = front door key, literally house door key). So, "climate change debate" means a discourse in which Everyone's allowed their own opinion. It is another matter whether or not that opinion can be substantiated by fact.

What annoys me about the clamour being raised is that Australians are being accused of major contribution to the problem. Sure, we provide the coal and natrual gas, but it is to the Northern Hemisphere which has a human population maybe six times greater than the Southern Hemisphere and who use so much energy heating and cooling their local environments (houses and workplaces). Sure, Australians add CO2 to the atmosphere, but we also capture a lot in the form of agricultural produce. Add to that, we still have thousands of square hectares of non-agricultural plant material that is cycling CO2 as it has done for millions of years. I don't like being called an environmental rapists when relative to those in the Northern Hemisphere, I'm and environmental voyeur.

I think that this is a better description of how countries whose currency had been the reserve currency of their time, collapse.

The sentiment, "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it," is most often attributed to the philosopher George Santayana, who originally wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". We are currently seeing this sentiment play out as the USA causes economic collapse to accelerate. It is a bit of a task to clearly express in words here what I want to express, so I would ask you to watch this video to see how history is being repeated. The decline of the Empire of the United States probably began in the 1980s wioth the idea that "greed is good". The full quote is, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works". The argument is that greed drives evolution and is essential for the survival of companies and the U.S. economy. Trump and his cronies, being products of the 1980s have accelerated that decline. Because the world's economy has been based on trust in the strength of the $US since after WWII, as that currency becomes deflated in value, the strength of all economies is lessened. Perhaps it is time to hitch Australia's currency to another one - maybe the Euro, or even the Yuan. In any case, I think that the global economy is heading for a catastrophic failure that will make the Great Depression look like an insignificant blip in the history of Mankind.

I saw that the head of the BOM has acknowledged that the new format is not a 100% winner and that it will be reviewed to see how it can become a better product. As long as the reviewers are people who actually want to use the site to easily obtain the information that they need for planning future activities. It seems that the beta version was reviewed by website developers who were no doubt expert in developing websites to meet current design fashions, but were not expert in what people actually used the information for. The site has gone live and those people who actually use teh information have reviewed the site and found it wanting. I said before that the new site won't be taken down and a return to the old site made. Let's battle on for a little while to see if the new site can be amended in response to users' comments.

Better that it was Albo than Ley. I don't think that "best friend" is a good label for Albo. Maybe "diplomatic tightrope walker" might be a better one.

Prunella Scales, who played the wife of Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers has passed away at teh age of 93.

Where do dwarves get educated? In a miniscule.