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The British Press British Press.mp4

The wife & I had a very quiet 63rd wedding anniversary. spacesailor

If you judge a person by the company they keep, then check out who Dutton's best bud and paymaster is hanging out with. Just to join the dots: - Dutton wants to be PM - Dutton's party gets a huge amount of funding from Gina - Dutton and Gina are friends - Gina has previously made statements like working people should be paid $2 a day - Gina hangs out with Trump mega supporters - Trump has laid off thousands of public servants - Dutton wants to lay off thousands of public servants Blind Freddy can see that if you vote for Dutton, you're voting for the same craziness that's killing democracy in the US right now. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/31/a-female-donald-trump-how-gina-rinehart-is-pushing-trumps-message-australia-ntwnfb

When I broke my ankle on the motorcycle over here, I was amazed at the conditions under which dedicated staff worked. The doc asked if I minded having the thingy to attach the drip to inserted into my right hand. My response was I preferred not to know about it, as I am queasy (it took over a week for me to read the first chapter of Human Performances and Limitations for the PPL here - it wasn't a requirement in Aus when I got my license). His response was if he didnt tell people he was doing it, 99% of the time he could expect a right hook to his jaw. A week alter, I was readmitted to casualty (ER is another American import) with suspected compression syndrome.. they didn't fart around, but for the short period of time I had to wait on a stretcher (it was later on a Friday or Saturday evening) in the tick of the action, all I can say is it was a real eye opener of the continual stress and security threat they work under. At sone stage, they had this huge bloke - over 6'6" and full of muscle, coked off his head, threatening abusing the staff because they were trying to treat his badly cut up knees from glass of broken bottles. He wasn't letting them get near him and he was a real challenge to the numerous security staff on shift. Eventually, they got his mother in to calm him down, and I had to laugh - she was 4' nothinh and petite and diminutive as they come, but jeez she packed a ferocious bark... He eventually settled down... The doc came to see me and I remarked to him he is a better man that I and that if it we me, after his second intensive remonstration, I would have just let him get gangrene or have the issues of glass lodged in his body. These people generally deserve our respect and a bloody lot more money than most of the get.

Back to the original thread subject - here's my "positive" report for this week. (SWMBO says I've been too grumbly and short-tempered this week. Might be, because I'm fighting to finish several projects). Thursday night, we went to the W.A. Gravity Discovery Centre, located about an hour N of Perth in the Yeal Nature Reserve, which is halfway between the coastal City of Yanchep, and the rural inland town of Gingin. The night Observatory tour we went on, is called the Adults Only Stargazing Date Night. The tour included dinner, and about 2.5 hrs of stellar and sky discussion and learning. We got there at 6:30PM for a supposedly 7:00PM dinner time, but we were told some people were running a little late, so the dinner start was put back to 7:15PM. We spent 45 minutes checking out some of the site attractions, such as the informative galleries. The whole setup is owned by the University of W.A. and comprises several display galleries as well as a "leaning tower", and the GDC Observatory - which is a retractable roof building housing several large telescopes - which we all got to peer through, to view some of the planets, and some of the more prominent and well-known stars. There were only 5 couples in the tour, and we got a nice meal from the little cafe, with the (pre-ordered) choice of chicken or steak, followed by cheescake dessert. Then we headed off into the darkness (aided by the tour speakers small red light, to ensure our night vision was preserved), to view stars and planets from the Observatory. He had a big green laser pointer which he used sparingly to point out the various celestial bodies of interest, and he waxed on comically for about a couple of hours, talking about star formations and collapses, the various features of planets, the research on Gravity Waves, and a host of other celestial and physics of the Universe that left our heads spinning. He reckoned he'd been doing this for 30 years, so he knew astronomy inside-out! Someone asked a question about satellites and how they affected sky-viewing. He got quite animated about this subject, and especially about Musks Starlink satellites (and he constantly referred to Musk as "Mush"! 😄 ) He talked about how he'd set up cameras to take dozens and even hundreds of shots of the night sky - only to find in the morning, that his sky shots were criss-crossed with satellite trails! - which left criss-cross lines all over his great photos! He said, "about then, you start having homicidal thoughts (about Musk)". 😞 I was staggered to find out, that there's now around NINETY THOUSAND satellites in low Earth orbit! - as against perhaps only a couple of hundred, say 30 years ago. We had an absolutely PERFECT night - a perfectly clear sky, cool to the point of being chilly, no moon (moonrise was around 10:00PM as we finished up), and as dark as we could get, allowing for the fact we were just 70kms out of Perth. Naturally, the City lights glow was still pretty visible on the Southern horizon. All in all, we had a very enjoyable evening, doing something a little different. The Adults Only Stargazing Date Night is currently unavailable, we got the last booking date for the event, for the time being. I'm not sure when there will be another repeat of this event, they might be struggling to get staff to run it, as it appears they rely a lot on volunteers. https://gravitycentre.com.au/

COMMENT by AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD. SMH, 20 March 2025. Donald Trump has inflicted enormous long-term damage on America’s defence export industry, a lucrative earner worth $US320 billion ($500 billion) a year in all its forms. Foreign defence sales are 10 times greater than US exports of liquefied natural gas. First in line for collective repudiation is Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet. Mark Carney ordered a review of Canada’s order for 72 of these advanced aircraft within hours of becoming prime minister. It will determine whether ‘‘other options could better meet Canada’s needs’’. Nuno Melo, Portugal’s conservative defence minister, says the F-35 is no longer considered a safe choice to replace his country’s ageing F-16s. ‘‘We have to know that an ally will be on our side whatever the circumstances,’’ he told Publico. ‘‘The world has changed. This ally of ours, so predictable over the decades, could limit the use, maintenance, components, and everything needed to ensure that the aircraft are operational in all scenarios,’’ he said. Portugal is looking at a European alternative. Germany may be next. ‘‘Nobody needs to buy an F-35,’’ said Tom Enders, ex-Airbus chief and now head of the German Council on Foreign Relations. He said Germany’s contract for these fighters was a misguided attempt by Angela Merkel to ‘‘appease’’ Trump during his first term. It should be cancelled forthwith. Europe does not strictly need the US Patriot missile defence system either. The upgraded Franco-Italian SAMP/T rival is more or less ‘‘equivalent’’. ‘‘It is absolutely imperative that we free ourselves of dependence on US systems as far and as quickly as possible. We can’t simply close our eyes to the fact that this American government has become an adversary,’’ Enders said in an explosive interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine. He said Trump was likely to blackmail and coerce Europe in much the same way as he has coerced Ukraine. ‘‘No one believes any more that he will stand by Article 5 if Putin invades the Suwa›ki Gap,’’ he said. One should be cautious of reading too much into share price movements. But it is striking that Lockheed Martin’s stock has dropped 23 per cent since late October, while Dassault Aviation has almost doubled in dollar terms on talk of more orders for the Rafale fighter aircraft. French missile maker Thales is up 90 per cent. The European defence sector has seen an explosive rise over the last month, pushed even higher by Germany’s coalition deal for €1 trillion ($1.7 trillion) of rearmament and infrastructure – to be ratified this week by a constitutional amendment to the debt brake. Enders, a no-nonsense parachute officer and former head of European defence group EADS said the US has access to the operating system of F-35s. ‘‘We know the Americans can shut the thing down whenever they want. We are totally dependent,’’ he said. Experts disagree over what the Pentagon can or cannot do remotely to paralyse an F-35. ‘‘There is no explicit kill switch. It’s not something that can be turned off on any given day,’’ said Justin Bronk, an aviation specialist at the Royal United Services Institute. But the fact that this discussion is even going on in the highest circles of European defence and foreign policy exposes the complete collapse of confidence in the US military alliance. In my view, it is irreversible. Enders has just launched Germany’s ‘‘Sparta’’ project, drafted by leading figures calling for immediate and massive German rearmament. It clearly has the backing of incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz. Rather than trying to catch up with Russia in tanks and aircraft, Germany and Europe should together seek ‘‘asymmetric superiority’’ by building a drone wall on NATO’s eastern flank, according to Enders. This could be done very quickly and at a fraction of the cost. ‘‘We need tens of thousands of smart robots on the battlefield,’’ he said. A few dozen people can make 1000 combat drones for less than it costs to make a Leopard 2 tank shell. ‘‘These drones can knock out enemy systems that cost several million with great precision,’’ he said. Europe should also move fast to escape the clutches of Elon Musk’s Starlink. Enders said Eutelsat’s OneWeb could do much of the job if buttressed by the medium-orbit satellites of SES. The focus should be on the ‘‘sharp end’’ of defence. Some of the weapons should be in the field in six to 12 months, but none beyond five years. ‘‘We’re not interested in a new arms system that takes 20 years,’’ he said. Sparta includes a dash for ‘‘cloud-combat’’ hypersonic weapons, a European missile shield, as well as a joint nuclear deterrent in co-ordination with France and the UK that span the escalation ladder from tactical nukes to strategic missiles. There have always been restrictions on how US weapon exports can be deployed, but the rules were clear. Trump has turned every form of vulnerability into a means of extortion. He has shown that he will not hesitate to cut rough with military kit to get his way – in Ukraine’s case to force capitulation on Kremlin terms – or ‘‘dividing up certain assets’’ as he put it. Those terms will probably be close to the Istanbul Protocol: neutrality, a skeleton military like Germany in the 1920s, Russian control over four annexed (but unconquered) oblasts, cultural re-Russification of Ukraine, plus a Vidkun Quisling-like figure to replace Volodymyr Zelensky. Europe faces serious dangers trying to extricate itself from US dependency. ‘‘If European politicians provoke Trump, we could get into an even more precarious position, setting off a vicious cycle,’’ said one expert from a NATO state helping the Ukrainian military. But it cannot go on as before either. ‘‘The US has complete lockdown and ownership of our security architecture. Long-range fires and potentially the Patriot missiles and some intelligence systems could stop working if somebody in Florida or Washington presses ‘‘no’’ on a computer. You couldn’t keep the show on the road,’’ he said. The Stockholm Institute says the US cornered 43 per cent of global weapons exports over the past five years. This cannot last. Japan, India, Latin America, and the Middle East will all be wary of locking into complex defence systems that could be used as leverage by the White House at any time and for any purpose. It is no protection if suppliers are private companies: Trump compels corporate leaders to kiss the ring and execute his agenda. He is proactively imposing his ideology on capitalist America. Even the Washington Post has bowed to pressure, refusing to publish views that flout MAGA nostrums. Two of the irresistible selling points of US arms exporters have long been that a) the dependency would not be abused and b) countries were implicitly coming under the US security umbrella by aligning their fortunes with America. Neither has currency in Trump’s Hobbesian world. The Telegraph, London

How do we treat the US? From my understanding: We allow them t have their bases here. We historically have a large trade deficit with them (in other words, they have a large trade surplus). That has only changed this year because their ultra wealthy see the writing ont he wall with Chump's policies and are going to a safe asset - gold - and are importing it from all over the world like crazy. We sell them aliminium that they did ot impose tariffs on previously.. but it was not dumped - it was sold at wither prevailing spot price or in accordance with futures or forward contracts (Vance lied when he said we sold subsidised goods); Unti Abbot clamped down on the car industry, we allowed the US car mnanufacturers to claim the 150% R&D tax deduction through transfer pricing R&D and not carrying out anywhere near as much as they claimed they did. Oracle, a large software company still claim their R&D centre in Aus, yet they don't do that much development there. AUKUS. Australia has signed up to $380Bn purchase of something like 8 subs, but have committed soemthing like 8bn just to prop up their ship building industry and we can't get anything back even if the US decide they don't want to supply us.. Most of our defence procurement is spent on the US We have sent troops to fight US wars that have no impact on Australia, and little in local geopolitics We have far more people move to the US for work - called the brain drain - we pay to educate them and the US gets the benefit of that education. And with all of this, we have lost our self-sufficiency in many ways. What does Australia get out of it? A promise (and increasingly unlikely to be honoured) promise that should Australia be invaded, the US may come to our rescue... So, tell me what else do we get from the US and what else do we do to treat the US so badly? So, I would argue we treat them very, very well.. using Chump's vernacular, we treat the US beautifully.. don't we? And they stick it up our arse.

Let's get back to the POSITIVE additions to this thread, shall we? Trump has his own thread. For last weeks and this weeks positive addition, SWMBO and I went to a couple of shows put on by the W.A. Museum and the W.A. Maritime Museum. The W.A. Museum show was "The Kimberley Experience", and the Maritime Museum show was "Empress Josephines Garden". The best part was, both shows were FREE admission! The Kimberley Experience was all about viewing the Kimberley's tourist places, without the need to actually travel there - and the Empress Josphines Garden show was all about the early French explorers of the W.A. coastline, and how they took home large amounts of W.A. flora and fauna to the Empress and Napoleon, which flora and fauna Josephine nurtured, and expanded to many other places in France. The French took home marsupials and emus, and W.A.'s Black Swans, which all survived for some time, it appears. Both shows were "immersive" experiences, where you were surrounded by big screens - and in the case of the W.A. Museum Kimberley show, we actually wore VR headsets, the first time I've ever done so. The VR headsets take you right to the camera lens view from drones and cameras fixed to choppers, and it was startling to look down with the headsets, and to suddenly feel like you were hanging in space over gorges and rivers. Both shows were very enjoyable and it's good to be out and about and socialising, which SWMBO believes is very important for your mental health, as you get older.

I wonder if the organisers will be able to pull it off.

Let me say again... there are no rare earth reserves in Ukraine. Reporting of mineral reserves is internationally governed by the Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards. See The International Reporting Template - Crirsco . I have lectured about this in Moscow a couple of decades ago. The Russians in Ukraine had speculative estimates of what might be there but nothing upon which a commercial contact could be arranged. The whole minerals thing is a Trump smoke screen for political agreements that will not stand public scrutiny.

Today is the eleventh anniversary of my cancer operation. 04/03/2014.

someone will always find a way to corrupt it. Right to bear arms was written in a far more simpler time, I'm fairly certain it wasn't intended to give mentally unstable people access to modern automatic weapons. I'm also certain the founding fathers of America didn't think a convicted criminal would ever get voted into office, so didn't include it in their documents. Its a sham when a convicted felon can't vote, but can be voted in.

Just think who would Gina or Donald vote for? Now vote the opposite

Here's a partial list of Trump's achievements so far (apart from tariffs, getting rid of USAID and going after law firms he doesn't like): — Gutting the IRS so badly that the country will lose an estimated $500 billion to morbidly rich tax cheats — Killing off the EPA so polluters can run free and profit from giving us cancer — Disbanded the Public Integrity Section that once prosecuted corrupt politicians — Shut down the DOJ unit that was prosecuting violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — Moved the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) under Kash Patel’s overview with the goal of neutering it — Crippling the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) that stops big banks and insurance companies from ripping off average people — Taking a hatchet to NASA presumably to hand more power and money to SpaceX — Dismantling the Department of Education to create more demand for private for-profit schools — Paralysing the Department of Health and Human Services that protects us from disease and pandemics — Mutilating the National Labor Relations Board that protects workers’ rights — Proclaiming their intention to end FEMA, so Americans are on their own when climate-change-driven disasters strike — Tearing apart the Social Security Administration so seniors will have to rely on big banks for retirement options — Demolishing the National Institutes of Health that develops new drugs and cures for disease — Seizing control of the FCC so they can end net neutrality and dictate content of radio and TV programming — Stripping NOAA of its workers so we’ll have to rely on for-profit companies for our weather reports and storm warnings — Kneecapping the Department of Transportation to block new public transportation projects and deregulate big trucking companies and self-driving cars — Ripping up the Department of Energy so it can’t fund any more “green” energy projects — Wiping out the Department of Housing and Urban Development to prevent any new low-income housing projects — Attacking the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to leave Americans defenceless — Largely ending the ability of the Office of Civil Rights within the DOE to enforce anti-discrimination laws in education — Defunded the National Institute of Justice that works against terrorism and far-right extremism — Eviscerating the Department of Veterans Affairs and other programs that help our veterans (including shutting down the suicide prevention hotlines) — Defunding the Department of Agriculture to gut food stamps/SNAP, school lunch programs, and supports for small family farms — Paralysing the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) that oversees the executive branch to make sure anti-terrorism efforts don’t violate civil rights — Weakening the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) so it can’t do its job of protecting minority or disabled workers and job applicants — Firing scientists at the FDA, gutting oversight of drug manufacturers. — Snatching students off the streets and transporting them to a private for-profit prison in Louisiana with no due process and in clear defiance of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights — Proposing changes to voting laws that will prevent tens of millions of married women from casting a ballot — Threatening to seize foreign, sovereign lands by force.

Give it up, I haven't met a nice lady at a polling booth yet.

When we choose where to live we have to weigh up the pros and cons. We lived in the bush for 21 years and enjoyed the good things and accepted the things that were inconvenient and above all we did not whinge. You can't have everything. If you enjoy your seclusion you just have to accept that it comes with disadvantages.

SWMBO has a friend who is - actually, was - a senior ER nurse, dealing with some pretty dramatic presentations. They deal mostly with angry, drugged or drunk people who have injured themselves - often badly. These injured patients abuse the nurses and doctors when they're trying to help them. They attack them, they punch them, they kick them, they even draw knives and other weapons on them, and threaten to kill them. They belittle the nurses and doctors, and threaten them when they don't get what THEY want - which is usually more drugs or more alcohol, other unreasonable demands. The nurses and doctors have to have security staff and orderlies who are expected to deal with violent and abusive patients on a constant basis. In between all this mayhem - genuine, ordinary people present with urgent medical problems, and expect immediate attention from overworked, abused, and tired nurses, doctors, receptionists, and other hospital staff. I'd like to see GON take up a job in the front line of the emergency entrance of a major hospital - preferably working in security. I'll wager he wouldn't last 5 mins. SWMBO's friend threw in her ER job, and now does gardening work. She says she had to do it, to preserve her sanity.

The CSIRO has been getting some undeserved bad rap in recent times and the Age is keeping it up. If the CSIRO research was valueless, why has the CSIRO set up licence agreements with more than 20 international companies, and has received around A$430 million in licensing revenue, from their Wi-Fi research? And how did they get the 2012 European Inventors Award for their Wi-Fi contribution? The truth is often very nuanced. https://www.csiro.au/en/research/technology-space/it/WLAN#:~:text=Slow wireless networking&text=CSIRO has licence agreements with,to send and receive information. https://www.naa.gov.au/visit-us/events-and-exhibitions/disrupt-persist-invent/wi-fi Don't forget the CSIRO has produced over 600 useful inventions from their research, and hold over 3000 patents. They invented the Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (which the mining and chemical industries rely on enormously today), polymer banknotes, Aeroguard, "Softly" Woollens detergent, developed myxomatosis and calicivirus for controlling rabbits, invented DME for aircraft, and produced the Relenza flu drug - along with a host of other useful products. They deserve better than a critical, incorrect put-down, in a cheap-shot media source.

Stroke care has definitely improved in recent decades. We are much quicker to recognise symptoms and get treatment. Modern care includes placing the body on cooled blood in a temp controlled environment to greatly reduced the damage as they give drugs to remove the clots. Many have recovered from previously deadly or greatly incapacitating strokes. I have had two major clots that should have been fatal but weirdly blocked my kidney. That is rather unique, the apparent impossible happened to each kidney 10 years apart. Hence I have two half kidneys. I apparently am the only one in the country this rare condition has happened too and it's been twice. The professor said better odds winning lotto twice without buying a ticket. I did not feel lucky at all. I have been on bloody Warfarin- rat poison since 37 and will till I cark it. All kidney donations will be appreciated- please include a GA flight medical clearance. I can supply the scalpel and ice bath.

He's a throwback to an archaic imperialist world view. He, Putin and Xi Jinping are all on the same page and understand each other perfectly well. I suspect that many leaders of countries that have been long-time allies of the US also recognise who he is and what he's up to but don't want to publicly say what they really think until the reality can't be denied any longer. They also don't want to get him off-side because he will attack at the drop of a hat. In my opinion he's a thoroughly nasty, impulsive and vindictive character with no redeeming features or moral values. In his first administration there were enough people able to throw sand in the gears to stop his worst instincts. Not so now. He has draped himself in the Royal Purple Robes with the connivance of the Supreme Court, dared anyone to stop him, and surrounded himself with enablers and sycophants. His Achilles heel is his basic ignorance and incompetence combined with his arrogance and highly inflated opinion of himself. That may yet see him come to grief before long. We can only hope.

Anyway, back to positives.... Beaut mild sunny day..... rode down to the next town, a bit closer to the south pole. Geeveston is still nice and warm. Had to take the leather coat off to sit and enjoy a burger. Lots of sweeping curves all the way. Few crazy car drivers. Love the autumn weather. The trees are starting to turn their colours. If world leaders spent a few days like this, there would be less wars.......

My positive of the week..... I have been reluctant to confess to the forum (you lot might be critical). My motorcycle has been trapped in the shed for 4 or 5 years due to unfinished heavy stuff awaiting major repair. Note that my dearest never mentioned its inactivity - she probably hoped I'd forget all about it. (Sensible girl, that one. But oh, so wrong). Anyway I recently had old mates visit and we got those big jobs fixed. Of course I hadn't forgotten the bike. Cleaned it up, serviced it, new battery.... and got it going. Then dread.... am I too old to ride? Have I lost the awareness needed on 2 wheels? Well after a few tentative brief laps of the paddock, I gave it a go. Absolute heaven! Now I have been out for a cruise into town every day this week! The awareness of surroundings - the scents, the wind, sights are all sharpened. Absolute delight! PS: I do know I'm no longer the same bulletproof rider I once was. But you can't wipe the silly grin off my dial.

Beautiful day in the passage, my mate Michele went sailing with tourists and on cue the dolphins arrived, they think she has a secret button 😄. The pods rarely leave the port. This afternoon I swapped the 3.3 hp for the 9.9hp 👍. Runs super smooth but does need a proper tune and a few little bits to tidy up. Very pleased, starts real easy but a few minor adjustments to make- not opening throttle fully. Also the idle and low speed mix for trolling Will sort it properly, but all looks positive. So far 10 knts but should get at least 15knts, the Tintanic is a very heavy build with four floatation cell seats and runabout steering. Not normal for 12 ft 6", sometimes I want a smaller, lighter boat. But it's a solid vintage Savage from 90's like the motor. Great having reverse again. Discovered it has a lighting/ electrical output, that's cool as can charge a battery and run lights. Most motors this size do not have this and often a $500 option. I may need to add a regulator as some pump AC instead of DC. A simple eBay will be fine. It's a two stroke but very smooth and fairly quiet. I will eventually add sound shield matting under the cover to make it even quieter. Will also add a water/fuel separator/ filter unit for guaranteed clean fuel. The carb has no drain plug so this is essential. 112 psi both cylinders, pretty good for 35 years of regular use. 120psi would be ideal but that's new. No crabs in the pot but the beers cold.

Off topic just for a moment. My Dad's prototype soldering iron, and put to use to do his radio repair work. It was rescued after he passed in the Ninties, along with other stuff. Not long before he died, he showed me the patent certificate. In the early fifties, Sherline in South Australia asked him, by letter, if they could manufacture it. He never replied, I'm not sure why, but knowing Dad, he just got lazy. Sherline waited the sixteen years and claimed the right to make the soldering iron. Other interesting facts about my Dad is he had one of the very rare VW Kombi Microbuses with split front seats. And he made an electronic ignition in the mid Sixties before they became common. It was a hobby project, but he fitted it to a customer's/friend's truck and that truck went many miles before Dad removed it and reinstalled the old contact distributor points. In other words, his electronic ignition worked a beauty.

Re the U.S. Subs - we urgently need to re-assess this dreadful purchase. It's a mind-boggling cost, with no guarantee they'll be delivered - ever - and trying to equip submarines with crews is a costly and difficult task. But we have the modern answer to subs - and it blows U.S. Nuclear subs out of the water, so to speak. And the answer is an Australian invention! - the Ghost Shark autonomous submarine! This thing has a massive depth ability increase over regular subs, and no need to risk any crew lives to operate it! Regular subs will become obsolete in the near future, exactly as tanks have become obsolete, due to the massive advances in drones and guided munitions. https://www.eurasiantimes.com/australias-silent-predator-ghost-shark-xl-uuv-a-game-changer/

Nurses and Doctors are some of the smartest and nicest people I've ever known. I've seen Plenty of extremely RUDE patients they HAVE to put up with. Spent today doing a CT scan in Melbourne. Nev

Trump's stupidity impacts the wider world outside of the USA (not that they're aware of its existence). We shouldn't have to "roll with the punches". We should do everything possible to make the US pay for his actions. Ian's decision to decouple the Rec Flying site from the US where possible is an admirable one, and I've made a donation to him because of it. In broader terms we should be doing all those things people are talking about - withdraw from AUKUS, reconsider any other military purchases (F35s for example), start charging massive rents for US bases and ensure all US equipment meets Australian standards.

We should first look at what industries we could either start or expand. I reckon we should look at value-adding to our minerals and agricultural products.

True, But all people with severe mental illness are banned from driving. Would you feel safe with him behind the wheel? Wouldn't let him near a kids Tonka truck.

Maybe building a storm bunker will have to be added to the jobs list. First cyclone down this way in 50 years but dodged a bullet where I am; not enough rain to wet the rain gauge and very little wind. The attached radar map was 1 to 2am this morning. Moreton and Stradbroke Islands acted as a buffer and knocked the pace off it. It's now a low off Bribie Island slowly headed this way. There's still up to 500mm of rain predicted but that will mostly be on the the more southern side of the low. Even though we didn't cop the wind here, it's still good to have made the preps. Everything is charged, water containers filled, food stocked, concrete block baffle barriers across the driveway and I bought a generator and a phone charger that plugs into the car. Gravity fed water and a gas stove helps. It started as a Cat 2 cyclone and one of the lady presenters on ABC radio made the joke that in NQ they don't even bother to take the washing off the clothesline for a Cat 2. 150kph gusts can still do some damage though. My little old shack is built to 43 metres/sec. wind rating, about 155kph, but I've built in extra bracing and tie down on top of that. One advantage I have is a 38 degree cathedral exposed beam ceiling with a plywood ceiling. The ply sheets are 3 metres long so completely cover the internal area without joins. To cut a long story short, I could lose the tin roof but the ply screwed to the rafters with battens over that would hold and would still repel water for a sustained period. My brother has a tile roof so if they blow off and the blue paper rips, the gyprock ceiling turns to porridge. The 38 degree roof pitch requires more wall bracing and less tie down than a lower pitch roof, but I doubled most of the triple-grip tie down anyway. Stump to bearer tie down is double requirements and there's a ton of cyclone rods and bracing ply panels. The biggest blow I've had here was probably about 60 knots and the shack didn't budge, so hopefully it would stand a cat 2 cyclone it's rated for. The last cyclone I experienced here was 1974 where it crossed just north of us. I was renting an old cane cutter's barracks right on the riverbank and it was shaking and rattling so much that I slept with the full face motorbike helmet on. It goes without saying I had that same helmet parked beside the bed last night just in case, or maybe just for good luck. In the '74 cyclone I woke up to knee deep water in the kitchen, waist deep at it's peak. Having breakfast, the water was just lapping the bottom of the table but didn't go too much higher. In a previous cyclone, that place had only six inches of the roof peak sticking out of the water.

What a pack of imbecilic morons, putting tariffs on Heard Island and Macquarie Island! I bet someone wrote up an April 1st article about Macquarie Island exports, and they believed every word of it, as Gods Truth. A friend of SWMBO's who does marine/environmental research work says they've been ordered to remove any reference to "bio-diversity" in any marine or environmental research that is to be sent to America. What a pack of f****** idiots.

Sad to see...... "election, with lines drawn on cost of living and energy" No mention of..... * Climate * Transparency of Anti Corruption * Security independence (AUKUS OR DEFENSE) * Australian control of manufacturing * Reducing multinational tax avoidance * Control of foreign ownership * OUTLAWING LIES IN ELECTION ADVERTISING.. ......... yes I was shouting.

For Chump, literally a quicky, but here goes: "The only person Chump ever hired who was actually qualified to to their job was.... Stormy Daniels."

The OVEN has to be at 120 degrees? Thats Obtuse. nev

It's seriously scary what he's doing to the US democracy. Several people here have described his behaviour as "Mafia-like" and it's not a bad description, although, also as previously mentioned, even the Mafia have their own twisted code of honour where he has none at all. I don't think that the leaders of countries like ours truly understand what's going on here. I think Trump has plans for there to be 3 spheres of influence in the future - USA, Russia and China. Europe isn't part of his calculation and neither are middle countries like ours. He wants to basically carve up the world like the old time empires (think England, Portugal and Spain) did. Some countries to be taken over directly by this trio - he's already made quite clear he wants Greenland and Canada, for a start - Russia would like not only Ukraine but then the other ex-soviet countries, and then, who knows - parts of Western Europe? And China of course will start with Taiwan and then maybe proceed southward in the Pacific. Any countries not directly taken over will be treated as lesser partners, always on the worse end of any trade deal and subject to any whim of Emperor Trump. We cannot treat the USA as a "special ally" any more. We are not under their protection, if someone invaded us they are under no obligation whatsoever to protect us and wouldn't unless it suited their interests. And watching what he's doing with Ukraine, he'd probably want all our uranium or rare earth minerals in return for "stopping" the war by giving the aggressor whatever they wanted.

What a "godsend" are these large language model (LLM) AIs. I now use Le Chat (https://chat.mistral.ai/chat) which is a French version of Chat GPT. It is a little more abrupt and less personal than Chat GPT, but just as effective, and I guess better because you definitely know you're interacting with a machine and not a person. Well, I was writing some code and trying something funky, which resulted in a run-time error (i.e. it compiled OK, but the error occurred under certain scenarios when the program was running. It was a stack overflow error, which is running out of memory on a part of the execution map called the stack. To be quite honest, they are a pain the posterior to debug and usually involves injecting code to keep track of memory usage, setting break points in the code (which stops execution in flight so you can see what is happening), and as this is multi-processing and multi-threading, means it could fail at completely different points of the code, in different processes and different threads within those processes... Even if you have no idea what I am talking about, you can get the idea that it is a bloody complicated thing to find and fix - a bit like a needle in a haystack. So, I literally asked Le Chat to diagnose the issue and gave it the very basis symptoms, and it was a lot faster processing than Chat GPT and pinpointed it.. must have taken it about 1/2 a second. I made the change and that bit of code works a treat. At the same time, it recommended some minor tweaks to improve performance. For may things, a lot less people are going to be required to produce the same output.

OK.. Have half of the walls sanded - all that I could reach. I was generating so much dust, and I forgot to kick back a blanket over the bottom of the door, that dust seeped into the hall way and set off the smoke detectors. I didn't hear it if course, with the sander blasting away. Anyway, as promised, some pics. The before with these really cheap shleves, where the photos make them look 10 times better than they are: And, so far (yes, there's a lot of crap on the floor including stripped wallpaper) Those patches of bare well in the middle photo are of where I hand stripped vinyl paint that came loose from the steamer.. looks like they didn't PVA or prime the walls - just threw paint on them. Plan is to finish sanding, wash down, clean up, fill obvious stuff (and there is a bit) and PVA today. If I can get that done, then base coat tomorrow and see what else neeeds filling. I don't want the walls to be perfect, but there are a lot of holes and areas where the skim has come off. And, we had a nice distraction today.. a hot air balloon flew over the village and landed in a fields adjacent to our place, where we walk the dog. It is being rested, so no crops on it.

Good Karma finally comes for a late Christmas. December was a bit rough last year. Firstly some bastard decided they wanted my tinny and motor, I tied up on dock at the passage at 6 pm, returned at 9pm to discover it disappeared. 3 days later Maritime called to say they found it 3kms away dumped in mangroves. Completely stripped, I lost the motor 8hp Johnson in perfect condition, two tanks, tools, oars and even the fuckin bailing bucket. The boat was left as it's well known and has rego/him plated. Naturally I was pissed off. Then on the 23rd, my 56 year old brother died of long COVID, sudden and tragic. December really sucked. Alas Karma shines eventually.. Last Monday I was chatting to a salty sailor working on his tinny motor and been frustrated, he needs 100% reliability, he has a lovely 48ft catamaran and is going North. He will use his off shore. He was prepared to dump it and buy new. A quick negotiation and bingo. He bought a new Tohatsu 9.9hp four-stroke that's injected and I got his 9.9hp Johnson two-stroke. Its a old school Aussie made machine and he is the original owner since new in 1990. Came with heaps of spares, a new spare prop, spare carby, tank, oil and 30 litres new fuel. A bonus is a 100-1 oil mix so not smokey and half the oil cost. Even has the original manual. A absolute bargain at cost of two shitty VB cases of beer. I love the old Johnson's, solid not plastic and easy to keep reliable. I find they are the best old motor you can get. I have suffered cheap Chinese crap Parsun machines and the are almost disposable quality wise. An added bonus is converting to 15hp is just a bigger carb. Most require new electrics and the carb so very happy. Parts are easy to get, even new stock and plenty of old motors to salvage. This is important as the bloody Parsun distributor doesn't carry spares. Even a broken starter is pot luck to replace, assuming the box doesn't break beforehand. No more shit motors for me. You can bet no Parsun will be going 35 years later like a Johnson. I had been using oars and then a little 3.5hp single, it will be great having grunt again. Amazingly the little 3.5hp uses more fuel than the 8hp did, I expect the same from the 10hp. The single is just full throttle most of the time. I am about to throw in some crab pots to catch some blue swimmers or muddies. I will eat them and drink to my brother, he loved 🎣. This time I will hide a locator tag in the motor to track the thieves if needed. I have a spear gun- they are warned..

Blimey - when I saw the thread title, I tought it was about MAS - Middle Aged Spread....

... especially when you have to admit you were wrong.

My wife and I decided we don't want children. It was a difficult decision, but we're telling them tonight.

Just go outside and view the Lightning. Better than any TV show.. Very impressive HERE last night. Nev

You NEED an arsehole. We don't NEED Trump. Nev

Your arguments or position doesn't make sense.. Wars of the Putin type are, let's face it, forced immigration. Yet you are dead against immigration (way back you mentione about needing a far right minister to quash immigration). So, on the one hand you don't want legal immigration, or as is often incorrectly assertted illegal immigration of refugees, but on the other hand you will roll over for forced immigration. Work that out, because I can't And then, the liogic would be if those Chinese ships that ammassed in the Tasman sea decided to invade, you would just hand your land over without a fight.. And then you say OME's assertion that you are OK to do away with democracy [and the rule of law] meaning you are happy for people to take whatthey want from you is wrong? I am totally confused.. what do you actually stand for?

I resent that. peter

GON, Anyone to the left of Attila the Hun can see it's a huge problem.

True but if you act like you will, life is more fun.