Corona Virus - Bizzare Outcomes

[ClintonB]

A couple of bizarre outcomes:

 

The Easter Holiday break starts at midnight tonight (00:01 10/4/20). Anyone want to guess how many people will die in car crashes, boating/swimming accidents, and other non-workplace accidents?

 

It's an ill wind that blows no man any good.

Went to the supermarket yesterday and all the check-outs had perspex shields between the customers and the check-out operators. Someone in the perspex industry is making a killing.

and the stickers for shop floors, how many of them would have been printed for woolworths alone.

[onetrack]

I wish I'd bought up a few container loads of hand sanitiser before this virus hit. I'd be sitting on a goldmine!

[willedoo]

This is an article on RT about a prepper in the U.S. moving his family into their bunker for the duration of the pandemic. It looks like a company has bought an ex military bunker complex in South Dakota and sells them to individuals for $35,000 each.

 

Family plans to survive Covid-19 apocalypse by spending YEARS in underground bunker while virus ravages the world

 

A few years ago, I spent a night in one of the bunkers at Possum Park near Miles in Queensland. They are ex WW2 ammunition storage bunkers converted into motel rooms. Prices for a three bed bunker with self contained kitchen etc. were comparable with a standard motel. Bunkers not converted to accommodation were leased out as secure storage. Possum Park

 

Photo below is of the South Dakota complex.

 

[willedoo]

I wish I'd bought up a few container loads of hand sanitiser before this virus hit. I'd be sitting on a goldmine!

I remember when HIV first hit, a few smart individuals made good money buying shares in condom manufacturing companies like Ansell.

[onetrack]

You just got to laugh at the preppers. He's still dependent on a lot of the outside world for a lot of his support systems. What happens when he runs out of diesel?? He surely can't have stockpiled enough diesel for 3 years.

Then, there's the need to source parts for everyday items he's using. What happens when the genset throws a conrod? He's gotta go to town to get parts! Who draws the short straw for that job? LOL

[willedoo]

After a month of being cooped up, they'll probably head home and just talk about it for the next ten years.

[onetrack]

There's a young local bloke who comes from a farming family near Narembeen, W.A., and he's got a YouToob channel full of rural and Outback W.A. adventuring.

 

One of his trips is to an abandoned home, in what appears to be a marginal rural area - where the previous "prepper" owners built an underground bunker, maybe around the late 1970's/early 80's, for the nuclear war to come.

 

Naturally, everything apparently went to sXXX with their plans, and they abandoned the home and the bunker. They were Saffies, and I suspect they may even have been cult members.

 

They apparently built an identical setup in South Africa, so they could perhaps "run and hide" between the two? I don't know what the thinking was behind it all, but it's a real "frontier", "backs-to-the-wall" mentality.

 

Regardless, it's interesting to see the setup now, and the failures in their long-term planning. I think I know the area where this setup is, I suspect it's around the Northern part of Salmon Gums, W.A.

 

It's a shame to see such a nice house abandoned, and the amount of money wasted on such a fruitless exercise. The video is 31 minutes, and quite watchable.

 

[spacesailor]

Very interesting.

A better house than most,

The underground houses at Whitecliffs are beautiful designed too.

spacesailor

[pmccarthy]

Being underground makes no difference with a virus.

[willedoo]

I'd guess most preppers would know that. They'd be going to their bunkers because by their very nature, it would be remote from the public and sources of infection. And they have the means to stay for a lengthy period. Some might have dugouts in their backyard in the suburbs, but most prepper's bunkers would be on rural properties away from people.

[willedoo]

On the spot coronavirus fines have passed the million dollar mark nationwide. It looks like Queensland is leading the way with over $600,000.

[willedoo]

The video is 31 minutes, and quite watchable.

Thanks for posting the video, onetrack; it's very interesting. The bloke must have been quite wealthy to build that twice. It would be interesting to know how he built it. One guess is that he might have hired a concrete mob to set up an on site batching plant. You certainly wouldn't do it with a mixer and wheelbarrow.

[old man emu]

On the spot coronavirus fines have passed the million dollar mark nationwide.

 

With people banned from leaving home, there are very few cars on the road, so the State Governments have to find another means to milk money from the otherwise law-abiding community members.

[nomadpete]

I'm surprised to see You, OME, of all people, knocking the authorities for persuing legitimate infringement notices on people, especially when we know that there are people out there who are not crystal clear on the strict interpretation of these hastily crafted laws.

 

However, Personally, I agree with your cynical view.

 

The loss of general revenue must be very problematic. Big dip in fuel excise and income tax, even GST will be down. Of course, they will be missing most of their traffic infringement income, too.

[onetrack]

On the spot coronavirus fines have passed the million dollar mark nationwide. It looks like Queensland is leading the way with over $600,000.

I wonder how many of them will get paid? At last count, the unpaid traffic fines in W.A. were at $140M and growing steadily. The NT outstanding fines list was at $100M last year.

They can't jail them for non-payment - the W.A. Govt passed a law last year ensuring fine defaulters no longer go to jail, so they have to find some other way to get the money.

I recall they were doing personal property seizures for unpaid fines, but I can't see them getting much out of that, either. Then they can try to garnishee income, but the fine defaulters find ways around that, as well.

[old man emu]

I'm surprised to see You, OME, of all people, knocking the authorities for pursuing legitimate infringement notices on people

 

Yes, I've handed out more than my share in the past, and I've arrested and charged people, too. But in my dotage, I have seen the police become cops, who never consider that, enforcing the multitude of laws and Regulations governments pump out annually, does not always going immediately to the issue of Process. Errors of behaviour, especially the misdemeanors most people commit, can frequently be corrected by giving an explanation of where the person has erred, and the giving of a warning that similar conduct in the future will result in penalty. This approach depends greatly on the police person being prepared to stand up in the community and say, "I am here to help my community, not to lord over it." Sadly, that pride in service has been lost.

 

Do you remember the last time you were "booked"? Was your usual behaviour improved by it, or do you still talk about the "bastard copper" who booked you? Worse still, do you recognise the police who work in your local area? Do they only appear to issue from your local police station like bull ants from a nest? Would you recognise your local cop out of uniform?

[nomadpete]

OME, I feel for you. You obviously care.

These days I don't often collect infringements. But the last couple I simply viewed as fundraisers. They didn't highlight activities that posed any risk to life or property. But the cop at the time was within his rights (he t rightly told me it was his obligation)to book me because I'd failed to observe the letter of the law. Although irritated, I felt sorry for the cop. He probably joined the force with high ideals. Here he was, creating antagonism with the public, widening the gap between improving public wellbeing (promoting the spirit of the law), and robotic fundraising.

We used to see good policing where positive police interaction even gained respect from the louts and crooks.

My biggest beef apart from all that is the fact that in most places one cannot go to a police station to seek help because police stations seldom have police.

[spacesailor]

THANK YOU, O M E.

I & my family have that feeling whenever we see cops Working.

Revenue Raising.

Government Coffer Fillers.

Never to help the people anymore,

spaceksailor

[red750]

What annoys me is the anonymous, unseen protectors of the law, of whom you are unaware until the infringement notice turns up in the mail some weeks later. I refer to the speed camera fines for travelling at 85 in an 80 zone. You are not allowed to look at your phone, but must travel with one eye on the speedo. As I had not had an infringement in over 30 years I appealed and had the fine waived with a warning.

[old man emu]

I despise speed cameras simply for the fact that they only seem to catch those who don't know their locations. Those people are mostly one-time users of the roads where the cameras are located. The regular users know the locations and adapt their behaviour accordingly.

 

The motto of the NSW Police Force is the Latin Culpam poena premit comes ("Punishment follows closely upon the heels of crime"). In other words, there should not be a lag between the time an offence is committed and when the offender learns that they are in for it. Getting a ticket in the mail weeks after the offence was committed does nothing to alter driver behaviour. It simply generates distaste for the Police, who, by the way, have nothing to do with the operation of speed and red light cameras.

[red750]

Fixed cameras you can deal with. It's the mobile ones in a car or van parked on the side of the road that catch you out. Usually parked at the bottom of a slope. Even with your foot off the pedal speed can creep up. Travel too slowly and you get tailgating, honking or overtaking. Sit just below the limit and you creep over.

[onetrack]

Funny that, I've never been caught speeding up a hill, yet. So I always speed up hills.

[willedoo]

I don't know if anybody can remember those little Kawasaki mini bikes they sold back in the early 70's. They had a top speed of about 30mph. For a bit of a joke, a bloke in Brisbane got booked speeding on one. He knew the cops had a radar set up at the bottom of a long hill, so he took off from the top donned in full leathers and full face helmet, laying over the tank like a boy racer. They clocked him at 37mph going past the radar, 2mph over the limit. He's probably still got the ticket framed and hung on his wall.

[onetrack]

The brother and I had several Honda Z50-J, 50cc mini-bikes, the ones with fold-down handlebars, when we were still a small contracting operation.

We'd use the bikes to assist in moving earthmoving equipment from farm to farm, or from paddock to paddock. They were flat-out at 60kmh.

The bikes could be carried in the boot of a car, on a dozer or loader, and you could shift the machine, and then ride back on the Z50-J to pick up your vehicle.

 

They only had seating for one person, but we put footpegs on them, so a second person could ride on them as well - but the second person had to stand up, the seat wasn't big enough.

As passenger, you stood on the pegs and hung onto the drivers shoulders. This was when there was two of you working together, you moved machines between jobs, and you only had one vehicle.

 

We had a goldmine located just off the Coolgardie-Norseman Rd (Hwy 1 - the main East-West route) at Higginsville, about 60kms N of Norseman.

About 7kms up the road, the huge American mining company Anaconda started up the RedRoss Nickel Mine.

We got a heap of work at RedRoss around the early to mid-1970's for our machines, so we lived on, and operated from, our gold mine up the road.

 

But we still needed to work the gold mine, so we would move machines between RedRoss and our mine. We'd shift the machines, then ride the Z50-J back to the mine along the highway - most often, two-up.

Now the funny part comes, when you imagine - here we are, way out in the sticks, on a lonely section of the main East-West highway, with largely only East-West travellers and truckies - and they come across two blokes, one standing, and one sitting, riding a Z50-J!

 

The looks we used to get were priceless - I'm sure most passers-by were convinced, they'd come across a pair of crazies riding a Z50-J across Australia!! - like the crazy Japanese, around-Australia bicycle riders, that were common, back then.

 

I wish we still had those Z50-J's, they are absolute collectors items today! We wore all of ours out. I just saw a mint one on Grays Auctions go for $2249! With the 16.5% buyers premium and GST, it would have cost the buyer $2882!

 

https://www.graysonline.com/lot/0001-9015354/motor-vehiclesmotor-cycles/circa-1977-1978-honda-z50j-monkey-bike

Edited April 13, 2020 by Guest

[willedoo]

I once knew an old bloke who was a one man band, mainly doing oil related earthmoving, rig leases etc.. He had an old three speed, ex bull catcher Toyota that he used for transport. His other gear consisted of a single drive B model and float, D6C, an old Cat scraper and a grader, I think it was an old wrist breaker 12E. He used an A frame tow hitch to tow the Toyota behind all the other machines. It was amusing to watch him moving camp; every half hour or so, you would see him roaring past in the Toyota solo to pick up another machine, then later roaring past in a cloud of dust towing the Toyota.

 

He had an ultralight that he used to fly home on weekends to see his wife. The prop fell off it once and the only thing that saved him was the fact that he was a lot higher than legally allowed, so he had a lot of glide time. He landed on a power line in heavily timbered country but clipped a tree with one wing and busted the plane up a bit. He never got hurt though; he was a tough old bloke.

Edited April 13, 2020 by Guest