Yenn

Thoughts on cataract surgery. I had one eye done because it was definitely fuzzier than the other. The surgeon really wanted to do both eyes, but the one I didn't have done is still as good as the operated on eye. You are in the hands of the medical profession with anything to do with eyes. Once you depart from your local GP, they use an electronic screen to check your eyes and you have no idea how they really are. I know that if I see a screen in the GPs surgery, I can work out what my vision is like, but the experts can get you trying to read a much higher standard so you think your vision is poorer than it really is. I wonder if crows ever suffer from catatact, I know they have woderfull eyesight and a brain to match. just watch a bird fly through tree branches at high speed. I couldn't do that.

A log way from J F Ks "Think not what your country can do for you" speech. It is happening all over the world, just think back a few years and you will see a big change in our own outlook on life. Everyone seems to be looking to get as much as they possibly can for nothing. If you go against the general run and say I don't want handouts, because they only cause higher taxes, people think you are mad. Just look at the handouts to pensioners since the start of the Covid problem. Good for some who are in real difficulty, but not necessary for some, but we didn't have any say in it, couldn't even decline it.

You are correct that the Commonwealth would not want to take over the States. They are doing very nicely thank you, as they will not even do what is required of them. they are happy passing the buck to the States. The states are in a similar position with local governments. The States make all the rules and the local government spends our rates money doing what the states deem essential. At this moment the State Government here has decreed that the local water board has to provide an evacuation centre for the handfull of people who get cut off when the dam overflows and floods the river crossing. They have never worried before as in emergency those people can get across a bridge owned by the water board. I really cannot see what use an evacuation centre will be, because the people who are stranded will probably not be able to get to it, because of low lying land between it and most of the dwellings. But then again they may be thinking that the dam could give way, in which case a large part of two seaside towns would be submerged, but nobody talks about that eventuality.

Luckily I don't get all that many scam calls, but I don't have the luxury of going to mobile phone for my connections. It doesn't work reliably here. A pain in the you know what really as banks like to send SMS messages if I make a large unusual withdrawal, although SMS does get through better than voice. What I dislike with mobile phones is that there is no way of finding someones number. People I know use a mobile, but I can contact them by landline only if they advise me what number to use. I can't find their number even if they ring me on the landline, whereas a mobile will retain their number.

Funny stuff light. I have recently had a cataract removed from one eye. Now that eye sees things as if they were a higher colour temperature than the other eye. Left eye sees blue, right eye sees green.

I suppose charity organisations could include things like the Capricorn Helicopter used for rescue. For years the Old Station raised money for them from its air shows, but they have become a vast money gobbling empire. I don't know how much the CEO gets paid, but doubt that he earns it.

China may produce junk, but in Australia where can you find quality. Bunnings had has a dramatic effect on hardware, it is hard to find tools that are of good quality and even things like cement are poorly packed so that they deteriorate rapidly in humid weather. I don't know if Bunnings cement is from China but I do know it does not come from the local cement works, which is about 10km from Bunnings store. We are getting rubbish pushed at us because the retailers can make a bigger margin.

What started this debate still has not been resolved. The latest is that at 5pm today, Tuesday, all postal votes will be in and counting can go on. The experts seem to think that it is still going to take days to find a new Mayor and also that there could well be another election required. The man who caused all the problem, who should have been declared Mayor, but the Qld government changed the rules to prevent him doing so has still 3rd position on the polls. The problem is 17 candidates and optional preferential voting. How do the count it?

The treatment the Brits got was from their own government. not the Yanks. The war cost them an awful lot but the thinking of the government was always that the average Brit was just there to provide power for industry and cannon fodder for war. The other imperative was to maintain the ruling classes. That was the main reason that I got out of England. Russia is very similar, since the collapse of communism there is a "ruling class" headed by Putin that wants everything.

the Germans were practically angels compared with the Japs.

I thought I made a mistake once, but I was mistaken.

Now it is not lackeys of the weapons industry, but CEOs and directors of just about any business. Most of them are paid 20 or more times what the person who does the work gets and never do any work at all. The more work a person does, the less they get paid. I am only glad that I did my working life before this happened, but now the money I managed to save is worth nothing. The percentage return on savings or even the return from top quality shares is miserable.

The calcium carbide gas was acetylene, which is used in oxy welding and cutting. It is also used for other things, such as determining the moisture content of road base material. This is done by measuring the pressure produced when the carbide is moistened by the material and produces acetylene.

I don't think the USA can afford a war on a global scale and I don't think China wants one. Not so sure about Russia, but they are not as intelligent as the Chinese. China will win without a war, whereas they may still win if there was a war, but the price would be too high. China holds the Ace card as the rest of us are just trying to catch up. They can withold supply of all those things we have come to rely on, or they can just stop buying from us until we drop the price. Compared to China we are in the sort of situation our farmers are in with the supermarkets.

I thought that the Fuhrer was a corporal.

Thinking back to my school days when we did exercises like 4 rolls cost six pence three farthings, how much change would I have from a florin if I bought six rolls? Answer 13.875 pence, done easily on my calculator, but I am too lazy to do it in my head. Even when Britain went metric money wise they were still teaching Imperial money in Hong Kong, even though Hong Kong had decimal coinage. Of course that was when Hong Kong was ruled by Britain and Hong Kongese did not have democracy.

What was the original definition of a metre? When the metre came into use we could not determine how far light travelled.

Electric vehicles do not necessarily mean less carbon. If the electricity is produced at a big power station and conducted a long distance, where is the saving, unless it is a solar or wind power station and we know that our pollies are not pushing that option enough. I don't know if climate change is real, but every year seems to be getting drier and this year, which the Met office has called a La Nina year, is one of the driest Spring, Summers we have had. My records since 1988 show this Jan to be the fifth driest in that time and about 120mm less than average. All of last year was way below average. There may be a silver lining to the clouds. It is actually drizzling rain now and I can't see the sun, Whoopee. My excuse for the met. office getting it wrong is that La Nina has turned out to be a lesbian.

Reducing the reproduction rate is not in the interests of the virus. What the virus wants is to be able to live in us for as long as possible, without killing us. For the virus to wipe us out is for it to wipe itself out. no matter what happens there must be some of us survive to ensure the virus survives. Survival of the fittest will ensure that happens.

Working on the farm for the dole is not going to happen. The farms are way away from the out of work population. I have heard that the farmers were wanting workers, because Covid stopped backpackers coming in. I have also heard that they were not interested in Aussies who could supply their own accomodation. The rort was that labour hire companies provide workers for farmers, but the rip off the workers by providing third rate accomodation at high prices. I have seen that accomodation a few years ago when i stayed at a caravan park near Stanthorpe. The backpackers were in humpies and old caravans, covered with tarps to keep out the rain, All messing together in a big camp kitchen and enjoying the life, but they would not want to live like that for very long. It was nearly as bad as i put up with in the peacetime British army in the fifties.

What produced limelight?

At the moment that bloke is polling 12% of the vote and in third position. If nobody gets more than 50% there will have to be another vote. The first position holder has about 25% and is a sitting councilor. If the sitting councilor gets the required votes, there will have to be another election to replace him as a councilor. There were 17 candidates and they all got a bit of time on the local ABC radio to explain their position. What struck me was that most of them listed leadership as a requirement for the mayoral position. I would have thought that the best way to get the correct person for Mayor, was for the council to be elected and the Mayor voted from the sitting councilors. That was the way it used to be done, before the State Government changed the rules to give themselves more control.

Forget the wars, he has devastated the USA. They are supposedly a first world country, but have had the greatest negative effect of any country with the Covid virus. All due to his posturing and saying he had it all under control. I cannot work out who is madder, Trump for being mad or his followers for believing him. Now the latest seems to be that republicans are expected to vote him not guilty in the impeachment trial. If the evidence produced points to him being guilty and the republicans still can't accept it, then we can draw our own conclusions about American democracy. We need to consider what is happening, because if it happens in USA it can happen here. The difference between Trump and Morrison is not great.

I don't eat any of those factory produced foods, nor soft drinks. Most of what I eat is produced from ingredients bought locally or home grown. This leads to a problem if i go anywhere without home made lunch etc and have to buy something in the food stalls. Most of what is on offer doesn't appeal to me, so I prefer meat pie of fish and chips. When i look at the labels on food and see all the unnecessary additives it puts me right off eating them. At the moment I have a weeks supply of bread working away and it has 3 ingredients. Flour, salt and water, nothing else, not even yeast as sourdough is just flour and water. Look on a package of factory bread and it contains many more ingredients and some of them are possibly not good for you.

Willedoo. That woop woop bird sounds like a Nightjar. Not actually hearing it and also not knowing where home is to you that is just a guess. My first thought was for a Barking Owl,but the speed and pitch are pretty constant, the other thought was a Frogmouth, but they don't vary much in pitch. We just had a family of four Tawny Frogmouths perch for a few days right alongside our house. Hard to see as they are well camouflaged. They tend to chuckle away in the daytime, or at least the young ones do and they also move around more than the adults.