onetrack

Not to be outdone, Mataranka Homestead has also gone under water, after the Waterhouse River burst its banks. I reckon a gumboot stall would be a winner, anywhere in the Territory, right about now! 😄 https://www.google.com/maps/@-14.9220046,133.1324012,461m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDMwNC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

We need more chuckles, the news is all too much gloom and worry today ....

At least he'll never be short of a pin. But I think he might be short of a few 'roos in the top paddock.

Could've been worse - like the bloke in Perth last year, who bought tickets for the 3rd day of the big international cricket match between the Aussies and the Poms, and it was all over, Red Rover, on Day Two!

Willie - The best penetrant is some stuff called Cyclo Breakaway. Made in Murrica, so you know it's good! 😄 https://www.sparesbox.com.au/products/cyclo-cyclo-breakaway-penetrating-oil-lubricant-475ml-c10?srsltid=AfmBOoqnIE2KmSBy_Top4bH_Wyd1uNgWy5LMVv4KrSOOY9ANKEIhi67g1vE

She was brought up alongside him, and knows him better than a lot of people - and she holds a PhD in clinical psychology, so she knows well, what drives people.

There's a pile of videos all claiming to show the "Real Iran". The one I saw was a young husband and wife travelling around Tehran. They were off to see the Great Bazaar, apparently with a female friend. I must say I was surprised when one of the women was going around completely devoid of head covering, and she jumped in the front seat of the taxi with the driver. If the Iran religious police had seen it, I reckon she would've copped a beating. But a surprising number of women were not wearing any hijab. The video was taken in May 2025 and appears to accurately represent everyday life in Tehran. It's a big bustling city. Of course, they're not likely to show the ugly side of the place - the police beatings, the hauling away of protesters, and the straight-out shooting of protesters.

They're nearly all just ordinary people, trying to survive like the rest of us, doing their allotted jobs and generally not causing any trouble. I was surprised to see the number of women getting around Tehran with no head covering. The religious police will roll up and beat them, if they decide the women are "offending morals". It's stone-age brutality, and I don't know how or why the people continue to put up with it. Of course, fear of even worse type of "security authorities" appearing, who will drag them off to jail for bugger all reason, is behind all their submissiveness. They didn't take long to jail the Australian woman, Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, right after she attended a conference there, claiming she was a "Zionist spy". She spent 804 days in an Iranian jail and they beat her, tortured her, and abused her endlessly. This is the level of rock-ape behaviour that exists amongst the paranoiac Islamic religious nutters.

This is Lindsay street in Katherine from 19 hrs ago. The Katherine K-Mart K-hub and the BP servo and adjoining shops are under water, to about waist-deep, by the look of it. The Katherine River peaked at 19.21M on Saturday night and has dropped back to 18.9M at 10:30AM this (Sunday) morning. Google Street View will give you an idea of what it looks like normally! https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lindsay+St,+Katherine+NT+0850/@-14.4635718,132.2654121,1052

The Americans have slowly woken up to the massive cost to their economy, of their ever-more-expensive weaponry. https://theconversation.com/the-us-is-using-repurposed-iranian-drone-technology-to-attack-iran-a-military-expert-explains-why-277397

All the Iranians here, that I have ever dealt with, are pleasant people to deal with, hard workers - and all despair at the state of the country they left. The original Iranian Farsi (Persian) culture was held in high esteem for its civilised level, and the Farsi's reached high levels of sophistication in arts, poetry, mathematics, and numerous other fields. They treated others in a civil manner, and social etiquette was well developed, and they were admired for centuries for their cultivated outlook. But somewhere along the way, the cultured Farsi allowed other cultures to infiltrate their nation, and those cultures were Islamist fundamentalist rock apes, who worked on religious violence, religious repression, and subordination by devious means - and the artistic and highly educated Farsi's were overwhelmed, and their ability to deal with poor leadership was constantly beaten down. One would hope, that soon, the cultured and educated Farsi's who believe in religious tolerance, and who formerly had good governmental processes, will gain the upper hand. But I cannot see that happening unless there is much more major bloodshed to come, as the Islamist religious rock apes are still in too high a number, to allow that to happen. They extend throughout many Islamic countries, and support religious repression and extreme murderous violence, at every attempt to remove them from power.

The 1.7M barrels of oil purchased in 2020 as part of Australia's storage reserves, and stored in a Texas salt cavern, was severely criticised by opponents after it was purchased, with opponents claiming it would be of little use to us in the event of a war, because of the time lag in accessing/shipping it (2 to 3 weeks), and the risk of loss via enemy attack in shipping channels, when on its way here. The message must have been heeded, because that oil reserve was sold off in 2022. I have no idea whether a financial loss or gain was incurred in the sale - but it may been sold at a profit, as oil prices spiked in 2022, thanks to the Ukraine invasion by Russia. Regardless, the simple fact remains, we still do not have the stipulated 90 days of oil reserves in hand, as required by the IEA. Our fuel reserves are currently around 34 to 36 days, and that should be of great concern to every politician with more than one functioning brain cell. Unfortunately, we have quite a number of politicians who seem to lack any functioning brain cells.

No, that's an incorrect assumption. The article says "$700M worth of agricultural exports". That amount would be comprised largely of agricultural machinery. We have no tractor industry left in Australia, so we import American-built tractors, harvesters and tillage equipment by the shipload. And they are all big-ticket items. Some of the headers and tractors are now approaching the $1M mark for purchase price. The amount of American beef shipped to Australia can barely be measured, they can't supply enough beef to Americans, so they ship in ... wait for it ... AU$5.2B worth of Australian beef each year! The level of American shipments of beef to Australia is estimated to be around US$1M to US$2M at a maximum - a drop in the ocean compared to the AU$19.5B worth of beef that Australia exported in total in 2024. https://globalaginvesting.com/australia-opens-market-to-u-s-beef-imports-after-two-decades/

Iran is already nearly out of water, thanks to bungling Islamic Fundamentalist leadership. They have only just very recently opened a desalination plant to provide them with water - I guess this may be the one hit? The water situation was previously so dire, the Ayatollahs were discussing moving Tehran to some place where there was adequate water. Where that place was, is anyones guess. There's going to be a lot of thirsty Iranian war refugees flooding into other countries soon. https://e360.yale.edu/features/iran-water-drought-dams-qanats https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iran-launches-key-water-transfer-project-from-gulf-of-oman-t (Ignore the news articles on Al Mayadeen, showing massive American losses. Al Mayadeen is a Beirut-based, Lebanese pan-Arabist satellite news channel, a propaganda mouthpiece for Hezbollah).

Yes, diesel did go down to around $1.00 a litre during the worst period of COVID, but it didn't stay there for very long, only a few weeks. The price gougers love major disruptions - any chance to give a reason for a substantial price increase. Spare a thought for a mate, he's driving his Landcruiser Troop Carrier from Esperance back to Victoria this coming week. Diesel is currently $2.29 L at Norseman and $2.99 a litre at Nullarbor Roadhouse. But I paid $2.79 a litre for diesel at Mundrabilla on the Nullarbor, when I drove from Echuca to W.A. in May 2024, so maybe not such a big percentage increase in remote areas, as in the cities. Diesel at Mundrabilla was the cheapest across all the Nullarbor roadhouses, back in May 2024. Nullarbor Roadhouse is always the dearest, you avoid the place like the plague. I wouldn't fancy being a caravanner tripping around the country at present, the massive increase in fuel prices is going to see a lot of people curtail their caravanning holidays.