willedoo

It hasn't stopped raining here, around 175mm so far and all good soaking rain. Today is the last day forcast with another 2 or 3 inches expected then back to odd showers for the rest of the week. Just had a look before and the floodplain down below is flooded. I feel sorry for the neighbours down there, they came from NSW and bought sight unseen so didn't know the full extent of how much and how often it can flood down there.

Yes, it can often be different on a local level than what the media portray. Like in Syria when the fighting was on. The media gave the impression that Aleppo was totally destroyed, but that was only the 20% held by the rebels. In the other 80% held by the government, people were still going to nightclubs.

If that's 'Real Iran' by the Globe Documentary channel, here's their whole playlist. If gives an idea of the standard of it. Clickbait by the look of it. https://www.youtube.com/@GlobeDocumentaryy/videos

I still haven't got the new/old lantern going yet. The biggest issue with a lot of lanterns that have been stored for many years is that the fuel tank bung gets seized in place. It's not easy to get lubricant between the threads so it just needs a lot of patience. Forcing them is usually a bad outcome and can break off the outer thread section. Sometimes it's an option to decrimp the bung cap, take it off, then get some lube down between the threads. It was too wet to go down to the shed to get the wd40, so I've sprayed the whole lantern with lanox. Now it smells and feels like a big greasy sheep.

We're getting a bit of rain here from the low. It's not too heavy at this stage so hopefully erosion will not be too bad. 110mm as of lunchtime today and maybe about 30 since. Another 40 to 70 predicted tomorrow. Down on the floodplain all the canals and drains are full and are only just starting to spread into the paddocks. I feel sorry for the few people who live down there; you have to be either brave or crazy. One lot I know have a horse business and have to truck the horses out every time it rains like this.

I believe you, him big chief.

I didn't know that Nev, did the term start during the war or earlier?

From a war perspective, it would have been a dumb thing not to sink the frigate and let it sail home to blockade the Strait of Hormuz at the least, or attack US forces. It's arguably Iran's best ship, or one of the best. Sinking it is in line with one of the stated goals, which is to destroy Iran's navy so it can't threaten shipping in the gulf. They still have a lot of small torpedo boats.

It's expensive all right. Probably cheapest from Bunnings where it varies from $24 to $27 per 4 litres. Buying it in a 20 litre container only saves a couple of dollars. It must have been cheap when we ran tractors on it.

Good question, has Iran officially declared war? It's rarely ever done these days. Usually they just box on and call it whatever they like, armed conflict, special military operation, police action, or whatever.

It's probably a bit of an ask to expect a submarine to surface and render assistance. For a start they don't have the space and facilities that ships have. Another factor is that the basic brief of submarines is stealth. The navy rules possibly might forbid them from surfacing after an engagement like that. Here's a question - are submarines exempt from the rules regarding rendering assistance.

Professor Donald Rothwell, who is a professor of International Law at the ANU College of Law, told ABC News the US did have a right to target the vessel under rules of engagement.

The lantern in the last photo arrived from the eBay seller. It has a bit of light surface rust from age so I sprayed some inox on it to free things up a bit. When I took the burner cap off and pulled the burner out, I found out it was NOS and never used. It had the original factory wick lying in the bottom of the tank. She had two of them listed and I thought of buying both at that cheap price, but after receiving mine I checked back and the second one had been snapped up. A rare find in that condition. That particular lantern is one of the best types you can get if you like the large size lanterns.

Peter, this part of that report is very hard to believe. I can't imagine any navy sailing their frigates around the world unarmed., they would be a sitting duck. Who would risk a valuable asset like a frigate.

The IRGC base was 60 metres from the school.

Maybe that's why Vladimir is so quiet on all this. If China can't source that oil from Iran, Russia will pick it up. Money to be made. He might also pick up some oil trade to China to replace their Venezuela imports. Last year more than half of Venezuelan exports went to China. From Vlad's perspective - lose a couple of allies, but gain a heap of money.

Time will tell as far as Khark Island goes. There's always the possibility they're hoping to get the job done while preserving Khark Island's infrastructure. If they had air superiority, it would be a simple matter of obliterating it with B-52s and cheap iron bombs, but no sign of that yet. Just as an edit: what the general said about Khark Island seemed to neglect the fact the US Navy could probably stop any Iranian tankers getting through the straits, so that would have the same economic effect I would think.

Last night I was listening to a retired US general speaking about the suicidal plan the Kurds over the border in Iraq have of launching a ground invasion of Iran. The general gave the obvious reasons why boots on the ground would be a disaster in Iran - sheer size, terrain, logistics and so on. He seems to think the better option would be to take out Khark Island in the northern gulf, where he said 80 to 90% of Iranian oil is exported from., and by doing so, starve them of funds. China gets around 12 or 13% of their oil from Iran, but that oil makes up 87% of Iran's oil sales.

I've always assumed our fuel would be shipped into Brisbane then distributed to SE Qld. from there. The thing I could never figure out was why Toowoomba always had much cheaper fuel than the Sunshine Coast when it had to be hauled up a 2,000' jump up compared to an easy flat run to truck it up the coast. Distance is about the same.

I would have had a lot more hair on my head and better teeth the last time I paid $1.60.

A bit of context: fuel has been cheap lately (1.80ish) and now diesel has gone up to not much above it's normal price. Most of the time I'd pay around $1.98 for diesel.

You're lucky over there onetrack with those regular prices. We haven't seen prices that low for many, many years. If it ever gets as low as $1.80 here, that's cheap.

I filled up today and it was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be. Diesel was $2/litre, up about 20c. Petrol was $2.05 and $2.10.

I've received my latest power bill and it's the first time in four or five years I've had to pay anything. I think all the government subsidies have run out except for the state government pension discount of about $90. With all the cost of living subsidies, my balance was always in the black for a few years there, but price increases have whittled the balance down so I'm now in the red by about $180. It was good while it lasted, but now back to the real world.

That whole area must be like one big sink. I remember when we worked around Lake Eyre in 1984, we were camped on the Macumba not far from where it heads into the lake. The north bank we were camped on was low but across the waterhole looking south, the high sand dune system had been cut vertical like a knife leaving a sheer sand cliff of about seventy or eighty feet height above the water line. At a later date I was up there and it was amazing to stand there among flood debris and look down on the camp so far below. It's hard to get your head around 80' floodwaters when you can't see it, but the evidence was scary enough. It was a similar thing when we took the chopper up the Warburton, huge vertical cuts in the sand dune system like a knife through butter. Where I live, the nearest town recorded 90" of rain for January in the late 1800's. Local history says the road was cut for five months that year.