old man emu

"Hypocrisy" often refers to advocating behaviors that one does not practice. If we harken back to the proofs of a criminal offence, then "advocating behaviours" is akin to the concept of mens rea. Mens rea refers to criminal intent. The literal translation from Latin is "guilty mind." So there has to be a degree of knowledge, not lack of knowledge. Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, or wit, an inability to learn. It may be innate, assumed or reactive. In Trump's case, I'd say that his stupidity outweighs his hypocrisy.

Today I Learned that Taiwan is the leading producer of silicon chips, producing around 90% of the world's most advanced semiconductor chips, and is a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the cornerstone of Taiwan's "silicon shield," the idea that the world's reliance on Taiwan's microchips protects it from invasion by China. Without those advanced chips which China buys from Taiwan, there would be no mobile phones, tablets etc. The design of the chips is carried out by US companies such as Apple. That is why the US maintains naval forces close to Taiwan in order to protect its intellectual property as well as the manufacturing facilities for the chips. China knows that if it tried to invade Taiwan, it would result firstly in the drying up of the supply of chips it need to manufacture whatever nowadays needs a chip, and then military action against the US. China is too smart to make that mistake. However, moves are afoot to establish silicon chip manufacturing in Arizona by about 2030. If that happens, then the US will no longer have such a great interest in keeping China away from Taiwan. It definitely wouldn't go into an all out war with China if China moved to absorb Taiwan. Taiwan has a history of colonisation very similar to Australia's. The original Taiwanese were like our Aborigines. Then in the mid-1600s Ming survivors of the invasion of the Manchu people fled to Taiwan. That's where the Chinese part of the culture came from. The Manchus established the Qing dynasty, ruling from 1644 C.E. to 1911/12. The Qing dynasty surrendered the island to Japan after the First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895). Japan held it until 1945 and during that time modernised it. Then in 1949 it became a refuge for the Nationalist Chinese under Chiang Kai-shek fleeing the Chinese Communists. Now the Chinese Communists claim that it is a rogue Chinese province, despite its having been ceded to Japan in 1985, and declaring itself independent for a few weeks after WWII. A recent publication, Rebel Island, the incredible history of Taiwan by Jonathan Clements ISBN (13):9781915590275 ha recently been published and goes into the history of Taiwan from prehistoric times to the present.

I'd say a Cessna Caravan, executive model.

Remember Hewson's birthday cake? Willesee: "If I buy a birthday cake from a cake shop and GST is in place, do I pay more or less for that birthday cake?" Hewson: "...If it is a cake shop, a cake from a cake shop that has sales tax, and it's decorated and has candles as you say, that attracts sales tax, then of course we scrap the sales tax, before the GST is..." Willesee: "OK — it's just an example. If the answer to a birthday cake is so complex — you do have a problem with the overall GST?" Basically, simple foods do not attract GST - meat, milk and vegies. It is only when those basic ingredients have been used to make a food product that the GST is applied. I'm just looking at my docket from the supermarket today. These things attracted GST: crushed mixed nut (for ice cream and chocolate sauce desert assembled at home), a block of chocolate and cinnamon donuts. Oddly enough, devon, beef sausages, chicken burgers, diced bacon and hamburger rolls didn't attract GST. although their production did involved what could be called a "service", in the form of labour and machine inputs.

The etymology of the word 'caravan' as it applies to an unpowered, solid-walled vehicle towed by an animal or a powered vehicle which can house people who move from place to place shows how a word can develop various meanings over time. The word 'caravan' is Persian. It comes from the the word 'karwan' which means a group of people travelling together for safety through a dangerous place. The image that word can produce is of a group of Arabs and their loaded camels travelling in single file across a desert. This meaning is akin to that of 'convoy' which comes from from Vulgar Latin conviare, literally "go together on the road". On the mud-laden roads of Britain from about 1640, a wagon called a 'stage wagon' or 'long wagon' was used to transport both goods and people between towns. These wagons were colloquially called 'caravans'. Although early English travellers using caravans did not sleep in them and did not travel in convoy, it was the fact that both people and their goods were carried in a single, covered vehicle for security that led to the wider use of the term 'caravan' in Britain. When the advent of the railways led to the decline of public, horse-drawn caravan services between towns, redundant caravans were converted to mobile accommodation for people whose way of making a living involved moving from town to town. When the first purpose-built, horse-drawn recreational vehicles appeared in England in the 1880s, they retained the name 'caravan' because they contained the living and accommodation needs of the owner.

I only picked those two as examples of the expansion of monoculture and to raise a red flag over the detrimental effects on the broader floral and animal environment of any sort of persistent monoculture. I wonder what trees are the source of these wood pellets. Are they from natural forests or plantations?

It's a Chamberlain 40K. The first Chamberlain tractor produced was the model 40K which had 40 horsepower (30 kW) twin-cylinder, horizontally opposed engines. They weighed about four tonnes and were considered to be ideal for the needs of Australian farmers. I wondered if the statue was to commemorate the place of manufacture of that brand of tractor, but they were made in Welshpool, a suburb of Perth. Carnamah is about 280 kms from Welshpool.

I'm trying to work out how to establish a relationship with the Magpie couple whose territory includes my place. I'm pretty sure that their base is amongst the denser trees on the other side of the road, but there is a solitary tree close to my front door which they sometimes come to. Yesterday I had some chicken scraps that I threw near the tree. I think they came down and took them, but their visits are so irregular that it's hard to plan when to put out some food for them.

Question Time in parliament has descended into a farce. It is a time for Dorothy Dix type questions from government backbenchers to government ministers, the answers to which have already been worked out in the Party Room meetings. After those questions, the Opposition has a go a scoring points based on the most trivial of matters. Dutton's question in the posted video made no contribution to benefitting the Nation. It's sole purpose wa to provide a video grab for use by whichever media organisation backed Dutton's mob. The topic of the question also shows that these politicians aren't really interested in promoting the good of the Nation. It's all about gaining and maintaining power.

While it's true that they don't deplete those finite fossil resources, they do create the problems associated with monoculture. Consider two results of monoculture, palm oil and radiata pine production. Palm oil plantations spread rapidly, resulting in deforestation impacts which wildlife habitats and human communities. Similarly, radiata pine plantations in Australia make our already poor soils worse. In China the Great Green Wall project is resulting in monoculture over vast areas.

No coal-fired generation in Great Britain. I guess anyone trying to get a contact to supply wood pellets is barking mad.

Well. Now we know what your vote is worth.

Corset they are. I'll keep you in suspenders while I consider the purchase. Thoughts of the expense involved are girdling my mind.

Today I got the first sign of the approaching summer. One of the straps on my last summer's things broke. Time to buy a new pair.

Especially since Florida is supposed to be strongly Republican.

The first requirement of Plan C, D, E etc is to apply the KISS principle. Getting fancy only makes for a more difficult construction, and introduces more potential failure points.

Will this thread still be active next Christmas?

I was only using a small amount of oil to stop the food sticking to the pan, which seems redundant since I am using a non-stick pan. Old habits die hard. I'm not real keen on fried food on a regular basis. I can't think how long it is since I had some KFC. Since I am only cooking for myself, I find that the air fryer is the most convenient, although I haven't worked out how to cook a steak properly. For doing that I use a griddle pan on the stove. I don't know how much oil is in the batter of frozen crumbed or beer batter fish, or in oven fry chips, but I've taken to referring to the manufacturer's serving sizes on the nutrition panel to moderate my intake of everything from vegetables to meat. I'm amazed when I look at the size of a recommended serving and think of what I my service sizes used to be. No wonder I was so heavy.

To Autumn. John Keats Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

The Shed I am going to (still uncertain about renewing my membership) has a dedicated new shed located on the town's showground. It is well appointed with new woodworking equipment of small commercial standard. I think its biggest problem is membership. I only go there on Wednesdays when I take my mate for the aged person's residence. There are only a few blokes attending, but I'm told more do on Saturday. The problem I see is that the blokes I see are older than me, and this town is one of God's waiting rooms. I heard that Wagga's Shed's youngest member is 18 years old. I think that Men's Sheds should encourage young fellows to come along and maybe pick up some skills. By "young" I mean those who haven't retired as yet. I know I'd love to be able to share learning skills with my 35 year old son. My grandsons aren't "men" yet. This video expresses what I think one of the roles of a Men's Shed is.

Creating more States at this stage of Australia's history would be well and truly jumping the gun. The United States wasn't built in a day – in fact it took 172 years for all 50 states to be added to the Union with Alaska and Hawaii being admitted in 1959. It is not a matter of land area, but population and the self-sustaining economies generated by that population. With a population of only 27 million, and most of that confined to pockets around the State capitals, the economies of those areas outside those pockets are not big enough to support State governments. You can't suggest that mineral revenues could do it. Look what we have learned about Kalgoorlie nickel. Australia is still being fed from the government storehouses. We expect our governments to provide health, education, legal services and transport. Private enterprise really doesn't do much of that, and when it does, it relies heavily on government subsidies. Unfortunately, it is possible that the best solution for the next 50 years or so, is to amalgamate all levels of government into a central National government. I say 'unfortunately' because we now have the knowledge that those who govern have little interest in MAGA (Make Australia Great, Also) but only in holding power and wealth while they can.

Maybe Indigenous Australians should have a voice in renaming the States.

Apart from one bit of rain from the edge of a cold front passing through, I've had nothing for months. Two months ago you needed a machete to get across a paddock because the clover was so thick. Now it's died off, making the paddocks look like late summer instead of mid-spring. I see that the wheat, canola and fava beans are starting to dry off. I think that is just the normal end of their growing season, but it contributes to making the place look miserable. I was waiting for spring so I could plant out some buffalo runners to establish more lawn. I had a lot of success when I first came here, but that was during the season of excessive rain. Last summer I tried to grow tomatoes and pumpkins, but they just shrivelled up. I'm giving up on the idea of any sort of garden establishment. I've tried for years in varius places. Things look promising in spring, but by Christmas the plants are wilting. The only good that has come from this dryness is that I can get my laundry hung out by 9:00 am and bring it it, dry, by midday.

I'm wondering if the Australian State governments are working with the Israelis to add the drug dealers from Australia who are living in Lebanon and who cannot be extradited to Australia to the list of unfortunate innocent collateral damage as the Israelis target the terrorists they want to get. Secondly, I wonder how much of the drug money raised in Australia flows into the coffers of those terrorist groups.