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Presumably the US and others are planning to give Ukraine some F16's or whatever they're going to train the pilots on. Given how much western hardware they've already got, Ukraine will probably end up effectively being a member of NATO in terms of integration even if they don't join formally. Putin won't be happy.

Yes but it seems that the number of disruptive kids coming from dysfunctional and fragmented families or have ADHD or have parents who are disinterested in helping their kids with homework, or are abusive to the teachers is steadily increasing. Even our teacher kids say that they never experienced significant levels of classroom disruption when they were that age. And when I was in primary school, the nuns encouraged obedience. attentiveness and completion of homework by liberal use of the strap. Not saying that was great either, but things these days seem pretty bad judging by some of the stories I hear. Not all kids and parents are like that of course, but a lot are.

Two of our daughters are primary school teachers. In reality they are social workers, psychologists, behaviour therapists, negotiators and report writers almost to the point where teaching is a secondary occupation.

He seems to be wearing combat robes. Must be a new addition to the traditional clerical wardrobe.

Sounds more like a warning to me.

Putin’s expression when Trump stood next to him and said he believed him over his own intelligence services was worth watching. Putin couldn’t believe what he was hearing and couldn’t wipe the grin off his face.

Putin will be alert to any jockeying for position going on and it may result in a few more unfortunate accident reports if he feels threatened.

As far as the Republicans are concerned Democracy is too valuable to be entrusted to the will of the people.

There will be a lot of unhappy Republicans if and when he does declare he's a candidate. Most of them must be thinking that he's got too much baggage to win now. Of course with all the behind the scenes scheming that they've been busy with to control future elections, he could still get across the line by cheating.

I think they will soon find themselves in the front line in Ukraine.

I wonder how long it will take them to get it partially functioning again. If the damage to the rail bridge is fairly minor and the inner roadway is not too bad they may have it usable again fairly quickly.

Democracy is supposed to be `government of the people, by the people, for the people'. The US Republicans' definition these days is more streamlined. It's just `government of the people'.

They're Rushin' all over the place judging by what the Ukrainians are saying.

I hope he runs again and loses badly. It’s the Democrats best hope with or without Biden. If it’s Biden against De Santis, the Dems will lose.

Given that the Aboriginals have a long history and a complex culture and social system, calling themselves a `mob' probably wasn't the best way to enhance their image.

Or ‘the Invisible Man’! I’m pretty sure he would have shown up as blue in the thermal imaging camera.

Yes a candle probably wasn’t the best example as it’s self-illuminating. Maybe a saucepan with a lid on it filled with water would be better. You can’t see the water irrespective of whether the kettle is visible or not so the easiest way to tell from a distance whether the water is hot would be to use a thermal imaging device. However, there’s nothing very mysterious about either an unseen elephant or concealed water. I think the point you were making was that some things could be there but invisible to our normal senses and therefore possibly paranormal. However, I’ll believe that when I see it, or maybe not.

But you can't see the heat coming off a candle with your naked eye either, Red.

‘Bigfoot makes Moonshine’ should be another episode worth watching.

Italy has had about 66 governments since 1945, so you won't have to wait long for a new one.

I wouldn't like to be in Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev's shoes. He's probably wondering what his chances are of being assigned to a high-rise desk job in the future too.

When I was about 20, I went to a concert by Spanish flamenco guitarist Carlos Montoya in Melbourne. One piece prompted the crowd to enthusiastically clap in time which went on for a fair while before naturally dying away as he kept playing - except for one idiot (me) who doggedly kept clapping the whole way through. Why? I'm not sure but it was a great piece of music and despite becoming very self-conscious that I was on my own, I kept going. Both Carlos and I and certainly the rest of the audience were very grateful when the piece finally ended. I'm still astonished that nobody told me to stop being a nuisance and ruining the performance. I still cringe when I think about it.

Answer to question 1 is probably nobody that's going to make any difference to the outcome. We tender for Government engineering contracts and they always have the `lowest or any tender not necessarily accepted' clause, and tenders are assessed on a number of qualitative criteria plus overall `value for money', not just lowest cost, so there is not much recourse if you are the lowest tenderer but don't get the job.

I heard he’s planning to mobilise up to two million reservists. The Russian population must be starting to wonder why this is necessary when the special military operation has been going so well. On the other hand I also heard that 75% of the population support what Putin is doing - up until now anyway. It will be interesting to see if that figure changes after this announcement.

It will reveal enough to make you watch the next episode but not enough to make you any the wiser.