old man emu

I saw eggs in my local supermarket priced about $9.00. As I was preparing this post I checked online for Woollies' price. The website didn't display it and there were indications that they were out of stock

During the day I look to the west and watch the clouds build up and drift over. Then in the evening I look to the east and watch the lightning and know that those people over there are getting the water that's been sucked from the ground over here. I've mentioned before that is seems that you can draw a line passing northwest/southeast over my place and the storms pass on either side of it, but don't run along it, meaning that everyone else gets wet and I get dusty.

We have reached a stage in our politics where most votes go either to the conservatives or another mob which has different ideas from the conservatives. A present, the major Conservative parties are the Libs and the Nationals, and the the major party that's different is Labor. There are other groups with significant following, such as the Greens. Think back to the glory days of V8 car racing. At one stage the two best competitors were Ford and Holden, with Chrysler being a lesser third. So, if a report on the race was made at the halfway point, the report would tell us that, say a Ford was running first, fourth and fifth and a Holden was running second, third and seventh with a Chrysler at fifth. At that stage, you might say that between Ford and Holden, on a two maker basis, Ford was most likely to win, but that could change. So the bookies would lay odds on that two-maker preferred status. The AEC does not have the data with which to make the statement until AFTER the polls have closed, so whatever it says cannot influence the ultimate result. To quote the original JC, 'The die is cast'. Basically, the AEC is providing a snapshot of the result based on results to hand at the time. Because the majority of voters support either the Conservatives or Labor, the AEC during early counting does not mention the minor parties and Independents. If you want to see how the vote went for those minor parties and Independents, you'll have to buy the Sunday paper and look up the results. We must be thankful that we have the AEC, because it has shown itself to be able to run an election and count the resulting votes with absolute integrity, something that most other countries cannot claim.

For those who want to pilot: CASA is so strict with its medical standards that if you have a pimple on your bum, your licence could be suspended, or if you have something a bit more serious, CASA will cancel your licence. Back in the 70's, I was trying my hand a selling life assurance. You could get the assurance without a medical. Think of the level of risk of dying that the actuaries considered when setting the premium. Of course the amount of premium related to the age of the insured, but the risk was taken on. No doubt the actuaries for the assurance company had more of an idea of the risk of death amongst the population.

Maybe with a choice of voices like you could get for your GPS.

If Trump puts a 25% tariff on our aluminium and steel, we should up the rent on the properties the US has here for its military uses. I was going to say that we should bung a 25% tariff on US goods and service, but then I remembered the lesson learned from this discussion - tariffs hurt the consumer living in the country which imposed them. So we don't want to put them on. About the only bargaining chip we have is to tell the Yanks to move out. That would be in line with Trump's policy of evicting people from countries. We could also cancel AUKUS and get our subs from Europe.

A while ago I posted somewhere about the boom in the production of balsa. The demand is being created by China which used the balsa for the innards of wind turbine blades. The innards are covered with materials such as carbon fibre, and it is the carbon fibre that makes recycling difficult. I really don't know what they do with the recovered bala. Maybe there should be a revitalisation in the hobby of building flying aeroplane models from balsa.

You know that redundancy package Trump is offering Federal employees if the quit? He says he'll pay them until September. Well.......................... Remember the fight late last year to have the US budget approved? It was. The money was promised until March. But ..... what was passed did not make any mention of money for the redundancy payments Trump offered. So there is no money from now until March for anyone who quits. Next, a new budget will have to be passed to carry on government after March. Do you really think that the Doge of Washington will let that sort of money be paid out? Trump is simply setting up another swindle. Remember that he is a past master of not paying what he owes. PS: "Doge" originally a title for a ruler. The Doge of Venice was the highest role of authority within the Republic of Venice (697 CE to 1797 CE). The Doge of Venice acted as both the head of state and head of the Venetian oligarchy. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

The Ford Pilot was a product of its time, but in that time, crash survivability was a matter of sheer luck. Of cause the Pilot would mangle an Austin or a Morris in a prang, just because of its greater mass, and greater rigidity. But lack of seat belts, rigid steering column, unpadded dashboard and rigid chassis all contribute to passenger injury. Our modern cars might be a write-off in a relatively less serious prang, but the occupants can get out and walk around to survey the damage.

You are correct about batteries being an essential component of the power supply system. Once we conquer the problems currently associated with them (real and imagined) they will greatly reduce the need for other non-renewable generation methods. However, I feel that we should also adopt a belt 'n' braces approach and keep some old style generating system in play for backup. What annoys me about the whole global warming thing is the way protagonists accuse those living in the Southern Hemisphere os being as blameworthy as those in the Northern Hemisphere when southerners do not put anywhere near the actual amount of bad stuff into the atmosphere.

ENOUGH!!! Prove that statement or delete it.

Compare one of today's light passenger vehicles with a VW, or any other car of the same era, and you will wonder how we survived. Well, a lot didn't. I wouldn't send my grandson out on the public streets in the sort of car I first drove, unless he was participating in a parade of historic vehicles.

What your questions indicate are the symptoms of poor management. The first thing I would look at is the constitution, or similar legal document, that sets out how the organisation is going to be managed. If there is one, is it being followed? Who has the authority to direct the operations - not the employed managers. Who bears responsibility for the operations an a committee level? Is there a Treasurer to oversee the finances. Is there an independent auditor to see that financial records are in order? The answers to these questions, most probably is "Yes", but you've got to ask them before you go into detailed questioning. I see nothing amiss in the questions you have identified, but I would fact-check the information that has given rise to the questions. Anecdotal material is to easily dismissed. Get information on paper because such information is your ammunition.

The difference between Trump and Putin? You can put more trust in what Putin says than you can Trump.

We'd be mugs if we put all our electricity generation eggs in one basket. We should make use of what has proven to be able to produce electricity - solar, wind, gas/coal. Australia is lucky in that it has the open spaces on which to erect solar arrays. More so, in urban areas where most of the electricity is going to be used, there are hectares of roof space. I see the solution as a divide between those two. I'm not overly keen on wind generation, which seems to be overly expensive to set up the generators. Even when commissioned, not all the generators in a unit are working at the same time. The question of transmission lines baffles me. We already have power grids covering a high percentage of users. What prevents the wire carrying the output from a renewable generation site from being connected to an already existing transmission line?

Go to any food court in a shopping centre and you'll be lucky to find a pie-eater. They are always available, but most people will be eating a kebab, Indian or Chinese. Should we lament the demise of pies? I don't think so. If I'm correct, pies (and pasties) are British foods. That's where we got the tradition of eating them. But since we opened our gates to all-comers, the basic foods in Australia have evolved as the culture has evolved. In the 21st Century, we should consider ourselves the "New Australians", who have evolved from the Anglo-Irish "Old Australians" through cultural cross-breeding.

I wouldn't worry if I was you. In South West Sydney there are new suburbs which are being referred to as Mumbai or Kolkata because there are so many Indians living there. At the end of June 2022, 753,520 Indian-born people were living in Australia, more than twice the number (355,380) at 30 June 2012. After the United Kingdom, the Indian-born population is the second largest migrant community in Australia, equivalent to 9.8 per cent of Australia's overseas-born population and 2.9 per cent of Australia's total population.

Contact your bank. They will have a fraud unit to look into it.

I posted that video simply to show the London bus on a skid pan, which is something you mentioned. Of course there are many more skills a bus driver needs to learn before setting out to drive the public.

It will be interesting to see if it is Trump or Musk who is Time's "Person of the Year" for 2025. It seems that the criterion for the selection is the perceived historical significance of the nominee. These two certainly meet that criterion. Most choices for "Person of the Year" have been historically important individuals, many of them infamous rather than internationally popular (Adolf Hitler was 1938's "Man of the Year", Stalin, 1939 and 1942, and Ayatollah Khomeini won in 1979).

That's a tariffic loss!

The Great Debate offering reads like an article in a popular aviation model. Quite pleasant to read. I like the humorous asides. I'm reading some short stories by P G Wodehouse at the moment. I wonder what AI would produce if asked to tell a story in his style.

Not on my watch, I won't!

Nah, That was just cheeky banter. No offence detected.