Bruce

My son-in -law ( I call him that even though they never got married formally) went to a barista school and I had hopes of really good coffee. Alas he needs a $1000 machine. In the meantime, your effort looks good octave.

My wife figured out the Hess reason right away. The Germans must have had good reason why they believed the British would never make war on them. And so it was to protect the people ( including royals) who had given the Germans these assurances that Hess had to be kept silent. The powers that be will never admit to this until 100 years have passed.

Sorry Jerry, but with your name they would think you are too old to jump clear of the enraged motorists.

I didn't know that either old K . Hope you came out of that bath with your batteries charged.

I paid 11 dollars at Jaycar for some battery rejuvenator, which was cadmium sulphate. Now you tell me epsom salts ( Magnesium sulphate) would have worked as well and been cheaper. This is devastating news for a cheapskate. My problem is that I don't know enough chemistry. If you google up epsom salts, you will find that it cures everything from batteries to splinters... how come I never knew that? I used to use nickle-cadmium batteries and so I guess this is why I bought the Jaycar stuff, thinking cadmium must be good for batteries. Silly huh.

It's even worse than you think Jerry. Those lollypop men are highly paid. Why, you ask... surely its a good job for dumb guys? The explanation is that it is potentially dangerous on account of how they could become victims of road rage. No kidding, but I wish I was.

The British also had a treaty with the Czechs which they didn't honor. I don't know why the Poles didn't help the Czechs. And the US gave the Japs the first bloody nose by cutting off their oil. Mind you, the Japs were doing dreadful things in China.

Yes that's right space. It was only the accident of Churchill being there ( a half American but still a pommy aristocrat, and a person who loved war) which caused that declaration of war. Without Churchill, the prime minister would likely have been Lord Halifax, who admired Hitler. The German deputy ( Hess) couldn't believe what had happened and he actually went to England to fix the mistake, whereupon he was put in jail.

I reckon living off grid is a great thing to do and a great adventure. So obviously I reckon you should do it. And if you keep a book on the savings, there will be money available to buy the odd load of firewood. But a lot depends on your partner. The only guy I know who lives off the grid had his woman leave him years ago. There is this song " you got 40 acres and I got 23, but I got a brand new combine harvester and I'll give you the key" so 150 or so acres in Somerset should be big we think.. can you really grow 3 crops of wheat in a year?

There are different modes of deterioration for lead-acid. A big one is debris on the bottom shorting out the plates, and this is where you are right Nev. But another mode is where the cells have been "sulphated" and this is able to be partially reversed by chemicals. I have had good results from rejuvenator chemicals and right now they have at least delayed the need for a new battery , ( although my wife disagrees and thinks I'm a cheapskate, a label which I wear proudly) What if the supercaps plus the old battery work well?

Good luck with going off the grid Jerry. I really wanted to on the farm, but the problem was the fridge. Not many women can cope with the idea of a top-opener. But the fridge shouldn't be so much of a problem in England. Can you grow your own firewood? If so, I reckon going off grid should be viable.

For most of my life, the US outspent the rest of the world on its military. Now it only outspends the next 12 or so countries. In WW2, they took more care of their own soldier's lives than anyone else, including the British and Australians. For example, they didn't do mop-ups against marooned Japanese , unlike the Australians who lost lots of troops on the Kokoda trail. And the worst most wasteful stupid thing was Montgomery's glider-borne attack at night on Sicily. Too few survived the landing to be much of a force. Well there is a lot of competition for that stupid wasteful accolade , Gallipoli comes to mind. While there were US debacles, they were less I reckon. But here's a thought ( not mine)... WW2 was a disaster in that it gave us all the idea of a "just war, where the forces of evil are bested by the forces of the righteous" and so there has been far more support for lots of wars than there should have been.

Hard to see how the Russians could do an internet... How could they resist the urge to control what was on it? I reckon the internet is barely surviving in the good ol libertarian USA

In rural Australia, there is no impediment to going off grid, and I think country electricity is subsidized by the city, so it should be encouraged. In fact it is an a nasty sort of way, in that a new connection is priced right up there to be just under the cost of an off-grid sydtem.

Jerry, I'm sure he meant house not hose. And I agree with space about nasty inspectors invading your property to bully you. I just hate how property rights have lost out to bullying bureaucrats. There was this hitherto law-abiding septuagenarian farmer in NSW who actually killed such an inspector. Yes the farmer later died in jail but he did achieve some reforms in the way the bureaucracy conducts its home invasions.

Is there a jurisdiction in the world where they spend taxpayers money with any care and respect? Those signs are an example where the perpetrators should be bankrupted and sacked... alas, they will probably get promoted. But Australia spending 50 billion on submarines with no possible use except to make jobs ( the jobs cost a million a year, not that anything like that goes to the workers) beats those signs. Why don't the voters take their revenge on the sitting members who either voted for ( or didn't object enough) to this waste I wonder. They get their chance at polling time.

Lead acid batteries lose capacity quite fast and I reckon lithium are better. If you buy a new lead-acid battery today, it may well be the last one you ever buy. Recently, my car failed to start due to an old battery and I shocked the wife by buying $10 worth of " battery rejuvenator" instead of a $150 new battery. Well it starts the car again, but not that well so I've ordered $50 worth of super-capacitors to put in parallel with that old battery and I hope it will start as good as ever.

Thanks Old K for the tip about a sustainable Australia party. Dick Smith supports it according to their blurb. I have been looking for an anti population-explosion party which is science based. It will be a long time before they win a seat, but their existence will help make people think I hope.

You see the problem with solar power when you consider living off the grid. What are you going to do if no solar or wind?' Pay 50 times more or go without?

Good stuff Yenn, but I still say that the only party to oppose insane immigration is the Pauline Hanson party. I would much rather vote for the Dick Smith Party but alas there is not one.

We don't have this awful stuff in SA. Here's how to tell the least corrupt state... study your stubby label and you will find that there is a deposit only in SA and now the NT.

There have been societies where homosexuality helped with your career ( ancient Greece ) and societies where it was a shameful secret ( Australia until recently) . the percentage of homosexuals ranged from 15 % down to 5%. So even if it helps you get promoted, most blokes still prefer girls, by better than 7 to one. I'm not at all worried that there will be more homosexuality now with the SSM vote. There will hopefully be less deceit around, like this woman we knew who married a guy and the marriage was a disaster because he was really gay but trying to be otherwise. It was a disaster for him too.

I read the other day that sex doll-robots were becoming so good that people were wanting to marry them. How disgusting... a robot woman who always agrees with what you say and is always ready for sex. They gotta make this illegal huh.

Far from doing too much on the issue nomad, I feel guilty about not doing enough. Complaining on this forum is surely not enough. This current bout was due to Paul Ehrlich's visit to Australia. He wrote the "Population Bomb" book in which he correctly predicted the invasion of Australia by boat people. This and other predictions are happening but slower than he thought. There is nothing to be done I know, when you read the local paper it is all about how wonderful the growth is but how South Australia needs even more rapid population growth. My guess is that the rich people who own shopping malls and blocks of flats donate to the politicians to keep big numbers coming in. . I feel powerless and worry about the fate of the grandchildren. Not since the trial of Galileo has there been such a difference between science and authority.

How much is a safety check? Is it compulsory?