old man emu

Central West NSW is inded glider heaven.

Yep. Those boundaries are arbitrary at best, but at least they give us a rough idea of where climate types change. Not much in nature is clear cut.

How come, if someone posts a topic tht is not related to politics, the follow-up always seems to fly into politics? Prhaps I should have included in the original post an allegation that the mites were introduced to Australia by the CIA on the orders of Trump.

I've seen clouds forming throughout the day, and then watch them drift away in the late afternoon. After sunset I see lightning downwind where the clouds have gone. Yep. We can draw lines on a map for our information, but the information they give is that there is some sort of boundary between two climate types. That's definitely true, but when you have the Great Dividing Range between you and the ocean, not much moist air gets over those ranges. Even the eatward moving remnants of the tropical air masses coming from the Indian Ocean sweem to pass to the north along the Queensland border.

I can't prove it meterologically, but I think that I live on the boundary of the northern and southern climate regions. That being said, it does rain here enough for agriculture to be profitable. It just hasn't rained sufficuantly for nearly are year. Prior to that rain we had a stinking hot summer and another one since.

A lot of you blokes have griped about the amount of rain you have been getting over the past few months. My gripe is waking up every morning to blue, cloudless skies for months on end. It's not as though I live in a desert, but it would be nice to see a few inches of rain falling over a week or so. We got a downfall a few weeks ago from a passing frontal system. That sprouted plants in the paddock, but since then it has been dry, warmish (low 30s) and wind. The green tinge is truning grey, and there does not appear to be any chance of rain in the offing. I live where once the usual farm raised sheep and grew wheat. OK, new cops like Canola and beans have come in, but that doesn't change the basic fact that it is a crop growing area. I wonder how many farmers will be taking the punt and dry sowing. I expect that teh financial risk is too high when combined with the high fuel prices. Well, I'm not worrying about cropping, but I sure am missing the rain.

I think I found out why petrol in the USA is cheap. Leaving out any taxes that might be applied, the reason is that the lower grade fuel, RON/MON 87, which most vehicle use contains lots of ethanol, which is so much cheaper than petroleum. They do have non-ethanol fuel, which has a higher octane rating, but the majority of vehicles don't require it. Remember when E10 came in? We were told that it could not be used in engines built before a certain date becasue teh ethanol destroyed rubber seals in various components. I imaging that with the introduction of ethanol-based fuels vehicle manufacturers got the heads-up from the fuel companies and changed over to ethanol-friendly seals. Remember that we are told NOT to use ethanol fuels in small engines like lawn mowers. I'd like to back what I am saying about the ethanol in US fuel by posting the video from which I learned this. While the title suggests a scam, it is not really. For a quick look at what I mean about the ethanol in their fuel, watch from about timestamp 3:30. If you watch the whole video you will see the simple test the presenter did to make a point of the video. NOTE: I don't think fuel pumps in Australia are plumbed the way these Yank ones are.

Nev, The Wright Brothers did in fact put a lot of R&D into their machine, and from that gained deserved success. But, then they did the American thing and patented the very thing that gave control - wing warping. The details of their patent prevent others from improving on that by replacing wing warping with ailerons. Those patents restricted the further development of aircraft for many years and cost heaps in legal fees. Meanwhile, they were able to profit from the patent by licensing others to use the concept in otehr designs. Admittedly the Wrights did give open usage for their data on wing curvature as it affects Lift/Drag. Locating the elevator device at the front of the machine did not last long as designers found that putting that device at the rear was effective and provided some other advantages such as being able to attach a wheel at the rear for ground handling.

Is it really Trump's idea? The idea just came to me that the USA has been planning moves to control oil producing nations for a long time. Can you remember the old riddle: Q: Why doesn't the USA invade (insert name of country)? A: Because it doesn't have any oil. I reckon the US military has been planning these actions for decades, however previous Presidents have been relatively reluctant to implement those plans. I think that we can all agree the Trump is unlike any previous President. Theodre Roosevelt once said, "Speak softly, but carry a big stick". Trump's versoion is, "Yell loudly and thump with your big strick".

A land of droughts and flooding rains. If it's not one thing it's another impacting on agriculture. While we are well aware of the problem of fuel supply coming into sowing season, there is a biological problem that is impacting the pollination of our food crops. In June 2022, varroa mite was detected in sentinel hives at the Port of Newcastle, New South Wales. The mite is a parasite of European bees which kills them. When it was detected, thousands of bee hives were destroyed in an attempt to control its spread. That didn't work too well. The upshot is that commercial bee-keepers were not able to place their hives amongst the plants that need bees for pollination. As a result many crops, such as apples, pears and nuts failed to produce. Worse still, while 'domesticated' hives were reduced in numbers, escapee broods headed off into the native forests, taking the mite with them. Control or eradication of the mite in Australia is now impossible using current methods.

Talking of wasting taxpayer dollars, how does the government justify spending $20M on an advertising campaign to tell us to drive sedately to conserve fuel. $20M is enough to give every licenced driver near on $1m each. How many people are curtailing unecessary travel due to the price of fuel? At least 91 Octane is only $2.15 at the servo I go to.

If he was fixing a worn balt, it was probably becasue it a had a fault.

GON, I was talking about the conduct of the trial - the presentation of evidence to prove the allegation, or the rebuttal to disprove it. Also the judge can rule on the admissability of evidence. These things take place before the jury has made its decision. Once it has, the jurors are dismissed and play no further part in the trial. Thereafter comes the sentencing process if the accused has been found guilty. The judge has a number of sentencing options which can be used, ranging from no penalty to the maximum prescribed by the particular law. There are other intermediate sentences, usually called diversionary sentences which aim at rehabilitation.

This is an interesting telling of the story of Iran post-WWII.

Just a bit of history about Iran in the 20th Century.

Guess you are not a member of a Southern Baptist Church. Theres Scopes of room for discussion of your statement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_trial

Perhaps the reason that teh Bondi Gunman has slipped from the front page is due to a lot of other stuff for the front pages. Things like Iran, fuel, cyclones, and Roberts-Smith are the short term attention grabbers now. Also the Bondi Bomber is awaitng the actual start of the Court appearances. He is currently On Remand.

It's the jury which will have the hard job. The judge is simply there to see that the game is played by the rules. So, Nev, are you thinking abour replying to my friendly challenge?

I think that those were fair comments, not likely to affect any juror. I was just saying that in my opinion, being on that jury is going to be a hard job.

While an Australian trial would be conducted according to the accepted rules, the assessment of the evidence is in the mind of the jurors, who are going to be selected from "the person in the street'. Nex, I make a friendly challenge to you, with out wanting to raise you hackles. Take a bit of time today and think what your decision would be, based on what information you have at the moment. I know that you have great analytical skills. Put them to use in answering my challenge. I look forward, without bias, to hearing your answer.

That is probably the fear - that he goes in, becomes a regular grunt and gets killed so that the Trump dynasty dies.

One of the causes of a major sea level rise was the release of unimaginable amound of water caused by the collapse of the North American (Laurentide) Ice Sheet which caused a catastrophic rise in global sea level led to the flooding of the Black Sea and drove dramatic social change across Europe. The collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet released a deluge of water that increased global sea levels by up to 1.4 metres. This increase in sea level and associated coastal flooding resulted in the submerging Doggerland. Doggerland was a large area of land in Northern Europe in the southern North Sea. We know the area as the Dogger Bank. Ther are many otehr places identified in oral histories that relate to this global rise in sea level. The flooding of the land bridges between Tasmania and the continent, and in the area of the Timor Sea. Speaking of Sydney, the harbour is the result of rising sea levels flooding old valleys. The same applies to Botany Bay. Local area Aboriginal stories carry nuggets of truth about the effects of rising sea levels.

Apparently Barron is too tall according to the physical standards. I can see how height would be a disadvantage in fitting into some equipment, like a tank, but there are many other occupations in the military where tallness would not matter. Maybe he could be trained to be a drone operator, or a communications operator.

Therin lies the rub for the criminal trail. "Highly likely" is not "beyond a reasonable doubt". I've been thinking what I would do if I was selected as a jury member for this trial. I've been influenced by the reporting of the evidence in the Civil trial. I've been influenced by my experience in investigating alleged crimes, which I hope I always did completely fairly. This trial is all going to depend on how the jury deals with the evidence of witnesses. I fear a lot of evidence might be hearsay, but are there witnesses who can say that they saw him do things that immediately resulted in the prisoners being shot? There doesn't seem to be any physical evidence, so any decision will seem to be based on circumstantial evidence. In other words, how will the evidence deal with any doubts in the minds of the jurers?

Trial by Media. Here is an interesting video which raises some worrying points about post-arrest media sessions.