old man emu

Let's face it. Two hundred or so years of observations are really insufficient to predict global weather systems that have developed over millions of years as a result of solar radiation and landforms. The behaviour of the atmosphere today is what it is, and all the King's horses etc. At solar midday at 150 degrees East today the shade temperature at my back door was 44.5 C

Aren't we generating lots of "free energy" from the sunshine and wind? Surely that should at least keep energy prices stable year to year.

Do tell! I was out straining the spuds when you blokes were talking about that titbit.

That is what duct tape is for. And let's not get into arguing over "duct" or "duck" tape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape

Wow! Close down the scientific bodies which protect the people and the Seven Plagues of Egypt descend upon the land.

Neither have I. Please explaaain.

If making money is at the heart of the US culture, then it is suffering a massive heart attack. Even before Trump was sworn in, there existed a major threat to the economy that no one seems to talk about. It is the massive drop in egg production, resulting from the presence of bird flu amongst the country's poultry. The disease control rule is that, if one bird gets the flu, every bird in the shed has to be destroyed. That has almost wiped out egg production. "So what", you say. "It'll just be bacon for breakfast, not bacon and eggs." But consider how many other manufactured foods have eggs in them. No more Twinkies in school lunch boxes. Many of Trump's billionaire techy mates have promised squillions of dollars for the development of AI. Since early trading began on January 27th the market value of Nvidia, an AI chipmaking champion, has slumped by 17% at the time of writing. The share prices of Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft—America’s cloud-computing triumvirate—have fallen by 3%, 1% and 3%, respectively. All told, American tech companies have shed around $1trn in value. This is all because of a Chinese AI company's release of an AI version called DeepSeek claiming its performance is ‘on par with OpenAI-o1’. Finally I don't have to reiterate that Trump's deportation policy, and tariff threats against China have decimated US agriculture.

Yeah. I did ruin your effort, didn't I?

Of those Australians who care to think about US politics, I reckon 50-50 could be possible. There is a lot of us here who have little regard for Trump. Who see his faults and are prepared to call him out over them. On the other hand, there are those, not necessarily here, who admire him. Dutton is one. I was reading the Sydney Sunday Telegraph this week and that paper is fully behind Trump. At least right here were are prepared to agree to disagree without going beyond putting down our side of the argument in writing, and, best of all, playing the ball not the player.

Have you seen these? Jerry might know them as repellents for the burrowing animal the mole.

I think that the action that Musk performed is not a form of salute common in Germany between 1923 and 1945. That German salute involves locking the elbow and wrist and extending the arm vertically, parallel to the centreline of the body. It does not involve a cross-body movement from the left. The action is called the Roman salute as it is depicted in Ancient Roman art. Perhaps he knew exactly what he was doing. He carried out an innocuous action with the intent that people took a false meaning. Either that, or he doesn't know the proper way to do the German salute.

It's a lie of Trumpian proportions. It never existed in the Ages BTT* GYAITMFHRNBIBYA originally appeared in a meme stating that people who were born in the 70s, 80s, or 90s would be able to understand the meaning without having to look it up. It's also been mentioned as a code that only parents will know. The phrase was made popular by the TikTok account Assalations. * BTT: Before TikTok.

The treatment of itinerant workers in the food growing areas of California is nothing new. It formed the basis of the 1939 John Steinbeck novel, The Grapes of Wrath. In that novel, the itinerants were tenant farmers who had been driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the main characters of the novel set out for California on the "mother road", along with thousands of other "Okies" seeking jobs, land, dignity, and a future. When the "Okies" reached California, they found the State oversupplied with labor; wages low, and workers exploited to the point of starvation. The big corporate farmers were in collusion and smaller farmers suffered from collapsing prices. All police and state law enforcement authorities were allied with the big corporate farmers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grapes_of_Wrath

What's the smallest thing in the world? A nit on a gnat's nuts.

Might I suggest a procedure to be used when someone wants to direct attention to a particular part of a video? The procedure would be to identify the time in the video that is relevant to the discussion. If I want to avoid others wasting time watching what is not relevant in a video, but want them to view something that illustrates a point I want to make, I like to identify that section by directing the viewer to a particular point in the video which I call a timestamp. All a person has to do is start the video, then click on the red bar at the bottom of the video and drag the dot along to the position of the time stamp.

Trump had a TV ratings win with the televising of the inauguration. Actually the prize was for the lowest ratings for an inauguration since 1969 when Nixon was sworn in. The figures were compiled by the ratings agency Nielsen's. An estimated 24.6 million viewers tuned in on Monday, January 20, 2025 to watch the inauguration. That's 7.3% of the total population of the USA, and 10% of the eligible voters. Very interesting is the break-up by age Viewership Across TV Networks Live plus same day, U.S. audience estimates Viewing Audience Rating Persons 2+ 24,589,000 8.0 Households 17,531,000 14.1 Persons 18-34 1,430,000 1.9 Persons 35-54 4,665,000 5.8 Persons 55+ 17,397,000 17.4 Source: Nielsen Fast Data, Live+Same-Day.

I agree. Have you ever tried to do 10 kph in a carpark? It's been said here before that trying to monitor frequent changes in speed limits is more dangerous than travelling with the flow of traffic.

This discussion about constitutions seems to have a stumbling block in that no one has defined what the word 'constitution' describes. Basically, any constitution is a written instrument embodying the rules of a organization. Recreational Flying Australia has a constitution, as does the Mens Shed organisation. Although not having Jerry's grasp on the two Constitutions being discussed in this thread, I think that the Australian one is the better. Don't forget that it is the product of over ten years' discussion and debate here in pre-Federation Australia, as well as having been scrutinised by legal experts in the United Kingdom. The Constitution is a document which was conceived by Australians, drafted by Australians and approved by Australians. A distinct difference between the USA's and Australia's is the distinction between the Parliament and the Executive Government due to the fact that, in Australia, the Prime Minister and the other Government Ministers (who form part of the Executive) must be members of Parliament. This reflects the principle of responsible government under which Government Ministers (the Executive) must be members of, and accountable to, the Parliament. The difference with the USA is currently being displayed through Trump's appointments. Looking at the process by which either Constitution can be amended, Australia has the more democratic. Firstly, most of the National electorate must approve the amendment, then the wishes of the electorate in each State and Territory are taken into account. This is done by a simple counting of the votes. First past the post wins. The decision does not have to be ratified by State parliaments. The original Constitution has been amended eight times, in 1907 (S.13), 1910 (S.105), 1929 (S.105), 1946 (S.51), 1967 (S.51, S.127), and three amendments in 1977 (S.15, S.72, S.128), so the original version must have been pretty watertight.

Wow! With her determination she'll be a glowing success in the legal field.

I invoke the Spacey defence.

Back in the early 2000s, there was a spike in the number of knife attacks, mainly, I think, ethnic gang related. So the NSW government beefed up the anti-cutting weapon laws that had been introduced to combat the razor gang wars of 1927-31. Police were issued with metal detector wands. This allowed police to conduct an non-invasive search of a person suspected to be carrying a cutting weapon. I t was just a case of , "you look like a likely suspect. Just stand still for a moment while I wave my magic wand around you.' Of course, back in those Dark Ages, likely suspects knew that it was better to accept than argue. Twenty-five years later, every "who-me?" reckons their Rights far exceed their Responsibilities, so police now have to ask politely for permission to play the Fairy Godmother with the wand. If a person is going to carry a knife, without reasonable cause, then some Rights go out the window.

I have learned how the gold deposits of NSW and Victoria formed as a result of mountain building (orogeny). The stumps of those mountains still exist. But the WA goldfields don't appear to have mountains. I have also learned that Uluru is the eroded remnant of an very ancient mountain range. I wonder if the gold deposits of WA are simply sediments eroded from ancient mountain ranges. But I have no knowledge of the geology of those goldfields. I base it on some shows I seen on the Discovery Channel which depict the countryside.

Having seen the NSW and Victorian goldfields, I'm astounded when I see the WA goldfields countryside. The two types of countryside are so different.

If he'd done that move in Victoria he would have been brought before a Criminal Court.

Maybe not on that section of the Hume Highway, but one hope that it gave him pause for thought since his wife and kids were travelling with him. Sometimes a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of vinegar.