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The Patriot crews will be getting some practice.

Sometimes I think I'd like to be off grid, but with the amount of mains power I use it's still the cheapest option by far. When I got the power on in 1994, it only cost me $5,000. The power company will run the power free of charge a maximum of 30 metres into the property (owner supplies the pole). From there I have 100 metres overhead which was $2,000, and from there about 250 metres of underground cable which was $3,000. With the three phases, that's four 35mm underground cables, so I'd hate to guess what the cost would be these days. If it was all overhead I probably could have got away with single phase, but over that distance it's good to share the load over two phases. It didn't cost much extra for the third phase cable so I got it put in for a couple of reasons. At the time I thought it was good to have in case I ever decided to run any three phase equipment, and even though I'll probably never use it for that purpose, the fourth underground cable is good insurance in case one of the two I use is ever knocked out by lightning or some other reason. Half the underground section runs up the centre of the driveway, so wiring in the unused fourth cable is a cheap fix if I lose a cable. Touch wood it hasn't happened but when the old underground copper phone line was in use, I had to get Telstra out a few times to replace phone cable from lightning strikes. It hits trees and travels down the roots to zap the cable.

The problem is - as regards replacing nasty, terrorist-run anti-democratic regimes, with democratic, peace-loving, fair-minded, just, and civil Govts - America's record is pretty dismal, when it comes to wading into a foreign country in their best gung-ho manner, armed with the worlds finest cutting-edge armaments, and blasting away at everything that moves. There's not a single country where any American attempt to install a democratic, Western-style, fair-minded and just Govt, has succeeded. In virtually every case, any country they have invaded has eventually returned to tribal militias, and gang warfare.

Jerry, 95% of Iranians are followers of Islam. They are Persians not Arabs, is the more correct way to describe them.

You might like to download and save this for use at an appropriate time.

-I've been with AGL for a few years. We got a smart meter at least 6 years ago, way before my wife passed. The meter is read remotely. I can log onto my account, see the current accruing cost and an estimate of what the bill will be in X number of days. These figures are constantly updated. This helps my budgeting. I wish they could do the same with gas.

He and Netanyahu are more interested in triggering regime change than getting some kind of agreement on nuclear development. In his statement justifying the attack Trump listed all the Iranian attacks on US interests snd personnel going back decades. Putin won’t be happy because he may not get some of the drones he needs.

Correct.

Trump's mantra is to prevent the Iranians from ever having nuclear weapons. He says they have been given opportunities to come to the table to negotiate but have failed to do so, therefore he is determined to raze their nuclear processing facilities to the ground.

Human life is too important for the choice to end it to be determined by an algorithm. Fully autonomous war machines are a huge threat. Once that genie is out of the bottle, all bets are off. We're not talking skeletal metal robots holding machine guns here. What about swarms of insect sized killers - going dormant for ages then activating on facial recognition and flying in the target's ear with a small explosive charge. What if that algorithm then decides that all people with a skin tone darker than X are a valid target. Or people wearing certain clothes. Or people in a certain age range. Or ethnicity. Or driving a certain model car. Or more likely, what if it gets hacked by a state player, or a crime syndicate, or just some incel in his mother's basement...

Walk this way, talk this way

Dafuq?? Do you really think Trump gives a flying f**k about the welfare of anyone who isn't Donald J Trump? Especially foreigners. Once again the stupid bastard is being led by the nose by Netanyahu, who needs yet another war to keep in power and out of court. Peace prize my arse. The only prize the orange clown deserves is "Worst President Ever", possibly upgraded to "Person who has had the most negative impact on humanity 2016-2020, and 2024 to impeachment"

Hmm.. thinking about it, if he succeds and restores a government that is democratic and/or representative of the people, maybe he should get a peace prize. For some debate on the amount killed over a month, it has ranged from the official 3,000 purely civilian population, to up to 30,000: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/iran-protests-death-toll-disappeared-bodies-mass-burials-30000-dead That article is a month old; Wikipedia quotes different sources with wildly different estimates: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Iran_massacres So I think 15,000 a month is not unreasonable. To put it in perspective, if it were to continue, it would equal the number of Palestinians claimed to have been killed by Hamas (currently around 76,000) after 2 years in 5 months. Also, there is the veil if not reality that Israel is targeting th emilitary that hide behind its civilians, and Hamass has not yet differentiate the number of cilvilians and mitilarty/terrorist personnel killed. But, for the sake of the argument, let's assume they were all civilians and Hamas doesn't release its military killings. Given most Iranians are Persian and not islamic, and the definition of Genocide (at least according to Google AI is: "Genocide is the deliberate, systematic destruction—or intent to destroy—in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group... " and incl;udes destruction, which is not necessarily killing... would it not seem that the Iranian regime is on that path against anyone who doesn't give the pretence of converted to Islam, or wants their own self-determination? I have no idea of Chump's objectives, but if an unintended consequence is the re-impostiion of a government represntative of the people, preferably democratic, and disollution of state sponsored terrorism, then, well, it does deserve a peace prize, does it not?

We are promised 100-150mm over the next three days. Could be interesting.

Perfect action to ensure the winning of a Nobel Peace prize.

Used to doing a bit of hitch hiking in my late teens. Family lived in Warragul and I was employed in the bank in Melbourne. In those days, banks opened on Saturday mornings, so I didn't knock of until the last train for the day had departed. Had to get home to get my washing done. I remember being picked up one day by a woman in her 50's/60's. She was prepared with a hammer on her knee.

There is a lot of confusion about what AI is, and how it can be used. Here is an image that identifies the three types of AI:

Correct.

I've been offline for most of the day, so you beat me with the report of Neil Sedaka. But there is a local one today. Lorraine Bailey, Grace Sullivan from the Aussie TV show The Sullivans, passed away today aged 89. A number of other TV and stage roles, and two Logies.

Trump confirms US has launched 'major operation' in Iran

The bore water at my place must be very low in minerals. It does not leave crusts on the end of taps and seems to lather satisfactoritly. It may not actually be bore water, but just creek water since the bore is not too far from a major creek.

I doubt it would work on a GOOD high tensile Nut. I've done Plenty and you need to grind or drill them to split them off a stud without damage to it.. Nev

I have 2 Phases also and it's DUMB situation specially if you have Panels and a battery. I've Had a "new" electrician Here for about 4 hours today rectifying the incorrect wiring. Nev

Going flat out to AI is NOT INTELLIGENT. Blind Freddy can see that. Get out of the RAT Race The RATS won. WE need to get REAL. Nev

All the statements have the caveat "now", and "today", meaning " maybe not ok now". At some stage, either a board of directors, or CEO, or deranged president can declare "ok now". When that day comes I won't trust the first generation of autonomous weapons, say perhaps flocks of autonomous killer drones, to recognise my face as friend-not-foe. Worse still, imagine the money that governments around the world can save when drones can do the work of our police. Autonomous ICE is sure to be trialled in USA first! Once this was just sci fi plots, now it is getting real.