octave

There are a some trails in Perth https://www.railtrails.org.au/trails/?trail_state[]=84 Yeah, I am jealous too!

Mrs Ocatve and I had a short trip away this week. We drove to Yea on Tuesday and rode part of the Great Victorian Rail Trail over 2 days. The rail trails (which exist in every state) are brilliant. Safe trails that run along defunct rail routes. They often run through beautiful forests and you will often pass historic remains of rail infrastructure from a bygone age. Often on these rides, I will pop on my special riding headphones (they don't exclude outside noise) and listen to classical music. I often get an overwhelming feeling of privilege in having these trials available and being able to not have to work.

Here is an interesting thing. My son lives in a huge house which is actually 2 houses in one with his business partner his and his business partner's wife (also a business partner). It is a house full of nerdy young optimistic (not whingy) people This is a house where if you sit on the couch you might find yourself sitting on some intricate 3d printed model of a variable-pitch turboprop engine or some part of a robotic project. We absolutely love visiting my son and his friends/business partners and regard them as family. Anyway, I thought people might like to see this. My son's friend and business partner and an employee built this scaled-down replica of a "Reviniew clipper" It was fully built by these folks from plans. Everything was done by them except the sails. This vessel has a stealth electric motor as a backup. They even smelted the lead for the keel themselves. We will be going out on Wellington harbour on our next visit (weather permitting) Anyway this thing is awesome, (I have seen it in real life but it was not ready to go to sea at the time).

You would prefer more kids around with spina bifida and no added folate in food. That seems nuts to me.

Of all the things you ingest I find it hard to understand why you are alarmed by folate. Where do you stand on iodized salt? If we were to stop adding folate and that 35% drop in Neural Tube defect - spina bifida were to be reversed that surely would be a bad thing wouldn't it? If you are genuinely worried you can buy bread that has not had folate added. Organic bread is not required to contain folic acid. Bread made from other cereal flours or meals such as rice, corn or rye (provided they do not contain any wheat flour) do not have to contain folic acid, though manufacturers may add it if they wish.

They do folate to flour. If you object to folate in bread then do you object to it in leafy vegetables and nuts? Lack of folic acid in the blood leads to anemia. Lck of folate in pregnancy can lead to Neural tube defects spina bifida and anencephaly. "The birth prevalence of NTDs (proportion of babies in the population born with an NTD) has decreased by 35% in the United States, since folic acid fortification was required in 1998."

Also, the idea is that during some peak usage events, some people will voluntarily opt to reduce their power usage to prevent indiscriminate outages that would affect a wide range of people who would suddenly have no power.

I would presume that anyone in this situation would not sign up for this scheme. It does not involve switching off unsuspecting people's aircon. It pays people up to $400. When the grid is struggling they may have their aircon reduced to up to 50% The goal of this is to prevent more widespread power cuts during peak times. "Energex and Ergon access air conditioners through PeakSmart meters, which are controlled via power lines, usually in return for access to a cash rebate of up to $400." "The goal of the meters is to reduce pressure on the network at peak times, often on hot days." "The signal tells the air conditioner to drop into an energy efficient mode, similar to an economy setting," an Energy Queensland spokesman said." "On Monday and Saturday last week, Energex used its remote access to limit 169,490 air conditioners to run at 50 per cent power between 4:20pm and 6:50pm across the south-east." "According to the Energex website, a survey of users found 70,000 people using the device did not notice any difference when the the measure was activated." These are not random customers, these are people who sign up and take the money. I see no problem here, it is not being forced on anyone.

Mostly the process of name changing is a multigenerational process. There are people who for example use Uluru an others who use Uluru/Ayers Rock and others who only use Ayers Rock. I am quite attracted to dual names the reflect the old and the newer history.

This is no more difficult than when I Holiday in New Zealand.

Many geographical names that we all seem to accept are tricky for tourists. We know how to pronounce many tricky places names. Personally I love the fact that we don't just reuse British place names. Many of our place names are uniquely of this country. I think perhaps the issue is more to do with change. Surely nobody wants to change Gundagui ect. to some English place name?

Just as an aside to this, there are many companies overseas (and a few here" that specialise in converting classic cars to electric. Classic old Land Rovers seem to be a popular conversion.

I am a bit confused by the title of this thread "No Trains to Warrnambool" I know of the story but are far as I am aware trains are unaffected. Is there information I am unaware of or is this to dramatize the subject?

That is not unique to Tesla or other EVs. Many new IC cars do not come with a spare. Other cars like my 2007 Ford Focus only have a so-called space saver tyre which is only a temporary solution and is limited to 80 KpH. Here is a list (a bit old 2017) of cars that do not come with a spare tyre. "Researchers for the roadside-services provider examined model-year 2017 vehicles and found that 28 percent of the new cars do not come with a spare tire as standard equipment. Eliminating the spare tire reduces the weight of the vehicle and improves fuel economy. While those vehicles often come with kits that can temporarily fix small punctures, if you have sidewall damage like I did, a large puncture or a blowout, you’re up a certain creek without a paddle. AAA also offered up a list of new vehicles for 2017 that don’t offer a spare at all. Here they are in alphabetical order:" Acura NSX Audi R8 Audi TT BMW 2 Series BMW 3 Series BMW 4 Series BMW 6 Series BMW i3 BMW i8 BMW X3 BMW X4 Cadillac ATS Cadillac CTS Chevrolet Bolt EV Chevrolet Camaro Chevrolet Corvette Chevrolet SS Chevrolet Volt Dodge Viper Fiat 500 Fiat 500L Fiat 500X Ford C-Max Hyundai Accent Hyundai Ioniq Infiniti QX30 Jaguar F-Type Jeep Cherokee Jeep Compass Jeep Renegade Kia Forte Kia Niro Kia Rio Kia Soul Mazda MX-5 Miata Mercedes-Benz B-Class Mercedes-Benz C-Class Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class Mercedes-Benz E-Class Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class Mercedes-Benz S-Class Mercedes-Benz SL-Class Mini Cooper Countryman Mitsubishi i-MiEV Nissan GT-R Nissan Leaf Porsche 718 Cayman Porsche 911 Carrera Porsche Panamera Smart ForTwo Tesla Model S Tesla Model X

As well as NASA and the CSIRO

PM you know me I am happy to look at new information. As a non-scientist, I can only go to trusted sources. I am assuming that you believe CSIRO to be guilty or worse poor science or worse being deliberately misleading. There is little point in going over this yet again. I do not want to use the word denier but the people who do not accept conventional science are in the minority and becoming more irrelevant each day. The information I rely on to form my opinion does not come from fringe sources but in fact quite conservative sources. I have been re-reading Shell's internal climate report from 1988 and identified the problem. Shell acknowledged it back then and they still acknowledge it now although they seem to be dragging the chain just like tobacco companies have done. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4411090-Document3#document/p4/a415539 This is quite a long document but some salient points have been highlighted if you scroll through. Anyway, I am sticking with the majority of the research and am more than happy to change my mind if evidence to the contrary comes along and convinces the majority of scientists in this field. This is no different from how I decided on medical treatment. I think this seems reasonable,

shop ride1.mp4 Proof of life video. About 9 times real speed so a bit vertigo-inducing and not particularly interesting. Best with sound

I survived

Are you sure they are not? You would have to look at a lot of research to know that. The thing is that laypersons such as us would have a hard time reading and understanding or even being aware of the body of work on a given subject. Of course, it is not possible to compare satellite measurements with measurements from before satellites existed. But this does not mean the longer-term history is ignored. https://www.climate.gov/maps-data/climate-data-primer/past-climate We may have to agree to disagree. I am not a scientist or a medical doctor> I can only inform my opinions and choices by attempting to assess all of the information out there and evaluate its quality and rigor.

The thing is that my opinion is just that an opinion. My understanding from things I have read is that volcanoes whilst putting co2 and other gasses into the atmosphere also has the effect of reflecting back some of the energy. The thing is though for me to pontificate about numbers etc. I would want to be on firm ground I would go to reputable sources of information. You should not take my opinion as fact when there are better sources out there. If I were to put my opinion out there I would probably read this article and others. https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/volcanoes-can-affect-climate#:~:text=Injected ash falls rapidly from,potential to promote global warming. The above sight is from the United States Geological Survey organization. I guess a lot depends on how reliable we believe this source to be. Perhaps this source https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/42/what-do-volcanoes-have-to-do-with-climate-change/ https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/effect-of-volcanic-eruptions-significantly-underestimated-in-climate-projections So my much less than expert "opinion" is that the C02 contributed by volcanos is many many times less than humans have produced. It also looks like volcanos have a cooling effect at least until the particulates settle.

OK folks, I am getting back on the horse (bike) for a gentle ride to the local supermarket to pick up a few things. if I am not back in an hour you can assume to worst😁

My wife and I do a short muscle-building routine almost every day. Although I ought to lose a little weight, my arms and legs are impressively muscular. My father died in 2020 at the age of 92 but although fitter in earlier years he really let it go in his early 80s I am not too concerned about the length of life but I do not want to be immobile. Losing muscle mass is very bad for many reasons.

I think it is important not just to dwell on the negative. This is something that does annoy me about some campaigners. The problem is that the "doubters" have gone from saying it is not happening or that it is some kind of plot to bring down society, to "well it might be happening but we are blameless" to it is happening and we are partially to blame but you can't change it, let's just leave it to the kids to sort out. The predictions are that whatever we do we will have to deal with a warmer planet. Mitigation is a no-brainer. Even those few who don't accept the anthropomorphic links but accept the increasing average temperature should be on board with making changes that will help us cope. It is wise not to just "doom scroll" on the internet" I try to post positive links about progress, however slow being made. This is why I posted the Andrew Forrest link. We are past the stage when it is only hippies trying to get renewable projects up. The biggest risk is giving up. “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit”

I think once in 9000KM is probably pretty good and like with aviation the analysis provides another level of safety for my future rides. True. I think the bigger risk for me would be inactivity. My wife and I sometimes ride one of the rail trails and as I like to do a longer ride she will sometimes drive to the other end of the trail and ride. We eventually meet up. We track each other on our phones so we know where the other is. I like to joke that she tracks me so she will know where to go to recover the body.