Old Koreelah

Might be good if he does; more than one strongman has been deposed while out of the country.

Perhaps it was American business efficiency experts who advised the military to focus more on maiming than killing; during the Vietnam war America dropped zillions of booby trap bombs. Many were shaped to resemble toys, enticing the innocent enemy to pick them up. The resulting explosion might have cost only an eye or some fingers, but diverted more personnel than a single death.

I’m still looking for the Cheesmakers…

One of the saddest sights from the annual Soviet celebrations of their victory over the Nazis: ranks of widows holding up placards with pictures of their lost husbands or sons, pleading for anyone who may know what happened to them. Their numbers gradually dwindled over the years, but these tough old babushkas lived in hope.

Crickey, are you blokes being fair dinkum about Vitamin D deficiency? Surely we paleskins get enough in this continent. When our recent ancestors moved to higher latitudes they had to adapt:

The same is true of nuclear power stations; their dangerous waste will have to be managed for generations!

China doesn’t need to invade; Russia will be so poor they’ll welcome Chinese investors. Remember that previous Russian regimes sold Alaska. There was once even talk of them selling Kamchatka to America. What claim does Russia have over Siberia? They colonised Siberia about the same time the Japanese were expanding north thru Honshu and Hokkaido, using similar levels of genocidal violence as America did to win “The Wild West”. Only two generations ago it was the likes of Zhukov who stopped Fascist Japan from expanding their Manchurian empire into Siberia.

My respect for that woman has evaporated; very selective in her outrage, seemed to be quite dishonest about her actual reaction. But that matters little; the damage is done, because most of us don’t delve thru the BS to get at the truth.

Good point, Spacey. I got in the habit of putting a tiny mark on oil filters and taking a pic before entrusting my vehicle to unknown hands.

Long-term I suspect Russia will remember Putin as the madman who lost them their ancestral home, much like the Serbs are still chafing about losing Kosovo. This war has firmly moved Ukraine into the western sphere. Russia has alienated almost the whole world and little Ukraine has collected lots of friends. One of my first impression when arriving in Britain for the first time was seeing the flag of Ukraine prominently displayed at the airport with a phone number for refugees to contact for assistance. I bet the same is found across western Europe.

After 70mm last night we were called out to evacuate flood-prone areas. My other half stepped into deeper water than expected and her new iPhone got an expensive bath. Today turned sunny and clear, so I opened the camper and laid out bedding, etc. to dry out. I didn’t notice another shower coming in and the whole lot is now sodden! I blame Red for distracting me with all those interesting aircraft profiles! (But you keep it up, mate.)

It used to be said that Guinness puts lead in your pencil. Too bad if you’ve got nothing to write on...

Six O’clock closing? I’m not that old! Kirribilli Pub closed at 10. Cheap accomodation in an old boarding house directly opposite the Opera House (51 Upper Pitt St.) The walk to Broadway gave time to recover from the schooners of black.

This address, one of the best I’ve heard, explains why death is so important. Especially noteworthy, considering how so many of this bloke’s rich countrymen try to cheat “life’s change agent”. FFto 9:04 if your’e in hurry.

Scientists are rapidly discovering intelligence in the (non-human) animal world. Not just primates, but dogs, birds and sea creatures. Some seem of another world: https://theconversation.com/suckers-for-learning-why-octopuses-are-so-intelligent-162122

As a Baby Boomer I was lucky to never be unemployed. I went into a CES on two occasions and came out a few minutes later with a job. The glory days of Full Employment meant I could leave the pub at closing time, walk over The Bridge and down to Broadway and, for two bob, buy a Herald literally hot off the press. Find a job, walk to the address, perhaps via Binky’s Burger Bar. The boss would turn up and ask who of us had arrived first; you had a job.

My mum spent the war on a dairy farm up in the hills. He war diary is fascinating. After the fall of Singapore, rumours of Japanese invasion caused many to panic. Her dad got the family ready to flee south. Each kid was given a specific tasks, such as leading a vital house cow or horse. Everything left behind was to be burnt. She dearly wanted to join the war effort, but was stuck in a reserved occupation, so she joined the ranks of Air Wardens who regularly phoned in sightings of aircraft. Just when reports from the war were most worrying, one day 52 Kittyhawks flew over, heading to New Guinea! Must have been a stirring experience, but she wasn’t to know then that several of them would get lost and crash, and many would soon get shot down by the superior Japanese aircraft.

My other half seems to have done her job well and is a valued MIL; my daughter’s hubby has always got along with her and subjects her to regular piss-taking. He once tried to sell her on E-bay, but didn’t get a single bid. More recently he announced that he was taking his mother in law to Paris for her birthday and the rest of us could come along too.

Back to China: This bloke reckons China is on the ropes: And another headache for governments that comes from left field: super rich buggers who think they know about international diplomacy: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/22/elon-musk-ukraine-russia-washington-lawmakers/

The dilemna for governments responding to disasters: a thoughtful approach involves an open inquiry into what should be done might yield long-term benefits, but take yonks. All the while, the Daily Terrorgraph will be screaming for their blood, so they tend to give short-term aid. Our short electoral cycles make it very likely we’ll rebuild on a floodplain or in a bushfire zone. We’ve come to expect the Guvmint to come to our aid. Administrators I’ve spoken to have little interest in promoting volunteering; they want “professionals” (paid by government) to respond to emergencies of all sorts. How will our aging society pay for that, with a shrinking tax base? Surely the best approach to allow old farts with time on their hands to do the jobs that governments will never be able to pay for.

Jerry’s “events from left field” will always arise and test out the best of us. To be nimble enough to rapidly adapt to them we need reliable information, clever scientists and engineers, plus wise leaders. Rigid command structures in Russia’s forces stood no chance against Ukraine’s flexible military. Global warming seems to be accellerating, but the likely disruption of The Gulf Stream could plunge Western Europe into an Ice Age. One Pinatubo-sized volcanic eruption could reverse warming for years. The bad guys could enlarge their cyber attacks on our communication networks. One solar storm could knock out much of our power and internet system, turning our urban areas into disaster zones. The worrying reality is that our people have become far less resiliant than previous generations. North Koreans stand a much better chance of survival.

Any emergency prompts accusations that governments are too slow to respond. Every disaster also attracts its share of liars who cheat the system to enrich themselves. After the recent floods a large helicopter landed at my small hometown’s showground loaded with emergency aid supplies for the local indigenous community…which is well-resourced and built high on a hill, far from any floodwaters. The leader of that community was once my best mate at school, has served time for murder and now seems to have mastered the white fella’s system. If the government officals had done a little homework they could have re-directed that expensive aid to people who actually needed it.

Dunno OME, we’ve got one Wong that’s turned out to be a bonzer Aussie.