Steve’s
Blog 2014
See also:
NEW
This many people have visited this site:
Kintail Burn, Dusky Track,Fiordland, NZ 2012 Six Moon Designs
‘Swift’ pack @ 450 grams
LINKS: 2012 and earlier blog 2013 blog 2014 Blog
31/12/2014: At sub 60 per barrel those Iranian mullahs
may have more difficulty now building nukes to destroy
31/12/2014: Ancient
31/12/2014: We will have to find
people to be ridiculously generous more often (as our son Bryn was with his
Xmas gift of two return tickets to London Town), as the related posts have
garnered 200 likes and comments! This has now wholly eclipsed our recent
‘crayfish’ post (c 8/11/2014). Oh, so many friends. Thank you Bryn, and ALL!
30/12/2014: ROADKILL: It always
saddens me to see birds (and other critters killed (or horridly injured) on the
road. Today on the way to the shop, there was a Songbird (thrush) near the
Junction. Near Billy's Creek, a mynah had been hit and his friends were holding
a wake. ..One thing that CAN be done about this carnage is if people would
drive (as we were taught many years ago in NSW) so that we would be able to
STOP for anything within our field of vision. If you cannot then you are ipso
facto driving DANGEROUSLY. The person following you has also to be able to stop
if you brake suddenly, so hang back a car length for every 10km plus one (was
sound rule). We were also taught NOT to swerve to avoid things (as this often
results in out-of-control cars and accidents). Many birds, possums and other
creatures (people?) COULD be saved...It is tragic that automobiles are today
THE major predator. Making cars once again noisier and more visible (fewer road
coloured cars) may also help prevent all these deaths.
30/12/2014: My new (Xmas) phone comes
with the opening message ‘Life Companion’ and a lovely picture of Della! How
did Samsung (Galaxy S4 Mini) KNOW?
30/12/2014: It ain't half hot, mum: One of
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/waterfall-freezes-over-on-the-yellow-river-9942588.html
29/12/2014: ALAS!
29/12/2014: I was talking to a chap
yesterday about undertaking a thousand mile canoe trip down the
29/12/2014: ‘Media Notices America's Grievous Shortage of Laws’: I have often remarked on the superfluity of laws we have here (too), but I confess I had not arrived at Warren’s startling conclusion about WHY we need them - else what WOULD we have to feel GUILTY about? – Must recall that next time we are trespassing in the Yarra Catchment, etc. Now that I have a Senior’s Card (and am exempt from requiring a licence) I am deprived of the delicious susurration you get from illegal fishing…fortunately there are PLENTY of other laws I can be breaking: http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2014/12/media-notices-americas-grievous-shortage-of-laws.html
28/12/2014: OHBOYOBOY: We had a wonderful family Xmas yesterday: (mayhap even too much of) Della Jones’s delicious food, loving company, lots of generous and thoughtful gifts, etc, etc…but as you may no doubt already have read, our son Bryn Jones quite bowled us over with the gift of free return tickets to LONDON! As one of my friends remarked, this pretty much reduced me to speechlessness (NOW, you know how to shut me up!) I had thought today to be playing with my new mobile phone, my new chainsaw attachment, my new hiking solar charger, my new hiking poles…but instead I find myself fraught with (planning) thoughts about what needs to be done before we can go, where we will go, what we will see. Will we be doing much hiking/camping out in ‘Blighty’ & etc. (No CITIES for me – but Della’s ancestors/mother were Londoners, so I guess that’s de rigueur). I’d guess we will end up doing one of our usual self-drive, take-it-as-it-comes, ignore-the-tourist-brochures types of holidays. I imagine I will check out some old ancestral addresses, so I can bore others speechless with slideshows of where great great great grandmother lived & etc. And of course, must visit Laugharne (see yesterday’s post)…I confess, I had always believed that when my great great grandfather was sent out here in 1828 (for some minor property transgressions) we could never return…
28/12/2014: WAR ON CAMPERS: As we
returned from our foray to the Upper Yarra Track on Xmas Day we cut down
through a long sub-continental-shaped ‘tongue’ of forest which hangs down East
of Noojee pointing towards Trafalgar along the Upper Latrobe River (Note to
self to investigate canoeing that particular stretch of river). We passed
through/by the ‘Hawthorn Bridge Camping Area’ which had recently been laid waste by our
(DSE/ParksVic) lords and mistresses using excavators to turn the previously
beautiful camp grounds on the river flats into something resembling the surface
of the moon (so there is now no level spot to erect a tent or drive a car) and
now designated with signs as a ‘Revegetation’ area, (presumably largely by
blackberries) etc. It still shocks and saddens me to see further evidence of
this green totalitarianism. I know it began immediately emerald folks gained
control (c 1983) of what were (then) Depts of Lands, Forestry, Mining etc and
morphed them into Depts of Conservation, Environment, Sustainability etc. I
recall (eg) areas along the Mitta (between the ‘
28/12/2014: Maybe you thought yesterday’s post TOO CRUEL? I recall Jesus saying that (though HE would not be), the ‘poor WOULD always be with us’ or words to that effect…I was not actually present at the Last Supper (see pic: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Ultima_cena_-_ca_1975.jpg though many other bearded gentlemen clearly were – and the chap second from left MIGHT have been me!) Howsoever, our society has long thought that there ought to be handouts (or at least ‘help ups’) for folks who are ‘down on their luck’ until (at least) they FIND their luck – or learn to MAKE their own, as the rest of us must…A loan scheme (eg as the US ‘Social Security’ was ever intended to be – funded by a compulsory levy on wages) has ever seemed to be a good idea, rather than having outright charity. The distinction is based on the now somewhat quaint idea that self-reliance, independence, business, creativity (may I say effort or ?) WORK, (marriage, family…) were all ‘good ideas’, if not the life-blood of civilisation! In the past it was assumed that such ‘welfare’ as was ‘needed’ would be self-funding, rather than (as it has become today), the largest (and an ever-escalating) DRAIN on the public purse which will soon become so utterly unaffordable as to bring our society to its knees – if it has not already done so! Let us at least CONSIDER the idea that such ‘welfare’ as is needed can be pre-paid, (worked for), or paid back, (by the recipients) and so be at (almost) NO net social cost! THINK about it, at least!
27/12/2014: The FIRST (and my personal favourite)
Dylan’s Christmas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HoxycLmMOk
A Child’s Christmas in
27/12/2014: You KNOW I’m not religious, but Wow (!) the Christians have some GREAT hymns (this one thanks to Blake), and CAN this guy SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10t7EbkHDzg#t=90
27/12/2014: ADDENDUM: ‘Good Luck Scott Morrison’: The big PAY OFF if Scott succeeds in ‘stopping the bludgers’ is that ordinary Australians will (once more) be able to retire at age 65 (or earlier) instead of having to work until 70 (or die?) to support a horde of MILLIONS: eg 95% of Moslem ‘refugees’ who are still on welfare 5 years after arrival; hundreds of thousands of surplus ‘disability’ pensioners; hundreds of thousands of ‘supporting’ mothers (paid for by working mothers) eagerly raising a horde from a collection of (absent) ‘fathers,’ born into welfare dependency and targeted to ‘graduate’ into juvenile delinquency/crime, etc; hundreds of thousands of ‘aboriginal’ Australians who should long since have understood there are only ‘Australians’ and that eg we all have to WORK for a living, and we have always had to MOVE to where the work IS; hundreds of thousands of long-term bludgers on the dole who are above such modest work as cleaning, taxi driving, picking fruit, etc…You get my point: if we don’t have to support the bludgers, we WILL be able to support mums and dads who have worked all their lives to EARN our support – instead of their having to work themselves to death to support the sycophants amongst us. YOU may also have received a post from someone COMPLAINING that the $300 worth of FREE GROCERIES they have received for Xmas are actually worth LESS. Such people, who bite the hand that feeds them are WORTHLESS!
26/12/2014: The things you see when you haven’t got a
shovel! We ventured off yesterday on an exploratory trip to see the ‘lost’
26/12/2014: Will have to try this: http://buynongmoseeds.com/quick-and-simple-fresh-peasant-bread/
Peasant Bread Is The Best and Easiest Bread You Will Ever Make
26/12/2014: Another vast ‘global warming scam: ocean acidification has NOT been occurring: http://www.breitbart.com/london/2014/12/23/noaagate-how-ocean-acidification-could-turn-out-to-be-the-biggest-con-since-michael-manns-hockey-stick/
25/12/2014: So THIS was a Powder Monkey! They sure were CUTE! You can see maybe why (Churchill?) opined that the (Royal) Navy was run on rum and ‘buggery’!: http://news.usni.org/2014/12/03/brief-list-old-obscure-obsolete-u-s-navy-jobs?utm_source=USNI+News&utm_campaign=e00243330b-USNI_NEWS_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0dd4a1450b-e00243330b-230367973&mc_cid=e00243330b&mc_eid=731d8359f5
25/12/2014: WHAT a vehicle for a gentleman, the ’Jungle Yatch’: https://twitter.com/Silodrome/status/546966268037697536/photo/1
25/12/2014: Life on Mars? Curiosity finds active organic chemistry on Mars: http://www.gizmag.com/curiosity-mars-complex-organic-chemistry/35241/
24/12/2014: I think Scott Morrison has a MUCH bigger job
now with his ‘Stop the Bludgers’ portfolio. There are hundreds of thousands of
people who will need to be dealt with, quite possibly over a million. Just as
an EXAMPLE, after the huge numbers of people returning injured from WW2 we had
perhaps 1% of adults disabled. We are now over 10% without massive war
injuries! The difference is over 800,000 people! I would guess also that there
are ‘ethnic minorities’ who are dreadfully over-represented. I would also guess
that many of these ‘refugee Australians’ have nonetheless visited their
previous homelands since they arrived here. This means (to me) that they no
longer need to be refugees. I have never minded helping someone out, but I
deplore anyone ‘having a lend’ of me. I would also guess there are many other
Australians who share my view. Since Scott STOPPED the boats it may seem Peter
Dutton hasn’t much to do: however, he clearly has to preside over a massive
REVERSE migration programme. It would be really surprising if there were not
over 100,000 ‘refugees’ here (living on our welfare) who have since visited
their homelands, who will need to be stripped of their citizenship and
deported. There are also tens of thousands of others who have defrauded us
and/or committed other ‘un-Australian crimes who need to be similarly treated.
24/12/2014: ROMAN concrete was better than ours: time we learned why: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2877547/Why-Colosseum-hasn-t-collapsed-Roman-concrete-used-secret-ingredient-stand-test-time-engineers-want-copy-it.htmlv
24/12/2014: Thanks to my son, Bryn…Extreme Shepherding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OE6HgK9NjQ
23/12/2014: What a cute pushie: http://www.gizmag.com/motoped-pro-cruzer-survival-black-ops-moped/34730/
23/12/2014: PROBLEM: ‘Deadly Islamists are now the coolest gang on the planet,’ (Mark Steyn) as Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces court, with the backing of fans and supporters: http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/12/victim_confronts_tsarnaev_supporter
23/12/2014: RAILGUNS may have their shortcomings, but they also have their positives (eg they could deliver cargo to space cheaply). We were working on these at Maribyrnong, but when Hawke (?) was elected the project was cancelled. Defence has never been a Labor strong point : (Has it been anyone’s in Oz?): http://www.nationalreview.com/article/394715/railguns-next-big-pentagon-boondoggle-mike-fredenburg
22/12/2014: I WAS feeling a little down (due to some
internet bullying), then a young friend rang to wish us 'Seasons Gretings' from
22/12/2014: A great Australian:
22/12/2014: Extraordinary; the things people do/CAN do: Pictorial: The 2014 World Flyboard Championships:
http://www.gizmag.com/world-flyboard-championships-2014-photos/35219/
22/12/2014: A friend of
mine’s daughter is concerned that she is not ‘pretty’. ‘A frog’s pretty in a
cat’s eye’ my mother used to opine…Most of us are NOT beautiful. Quite the
reverse. 'Beauty' is quite fleeting (and unimportant) anyway. I have been 'ugly'
all my life but I can't say I have given a moment's thought to it. Doesn't
matter. Can't do anything about it anyway. More important things to think
about. 'If it don't rain the roof don't leak; if it do, can't fix it anyway',
or words to that effect.
22/12/2014: UNBROKEN: a fantastic story; what Zamperini and his comrades went through was astounding. DO read the book. For one thing you will understand why the Allies had to drop the atomic bombs: the Japs were going to execute all POWs in a matter of DAYS (anyway in August 1945). Unfortunately Jolie’s film omits an important (to him at least, and many others) 60 YEARS of Louie’s life: after he became a Christian in 1949. Interesting…
21/12/2014: Something for those of us
who always wear pull-on boots (because we can’t): http://www.gizmag.com/powerlace-auto-lacing-shoe/34781/
21/12/2014: TWO fascinating adjoined points: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/eat_them_squirrels_tennessee_boy/
21/12/2014: BEATING THE BLUDJAHIDEEN: Alan R.M. Jones: ‘If we can stop the boats and the drownings, we can stop the undeserved free lunches, as well as the lawfare waged on civil society and our safety…More than that, we can stop heeding the excuses and rationalisations on behalf of those who would harm innocents and coarsen our civil soul. If we have the will, if the collective outrage of right now declines to flag, we can say loudly that we refuse to live any longer in the rotten edifice of a social-experiment freak-out ginned up at a bong party in the sociology department common room. We must first overcome the absurd protests that Monis’ villainy was a one-off, an isolated case, which had nothing to do with his sinister religious beliefs. Likewise, we must recognise the dysfunctional welfare-industrial complex for what it is — a support scheme available to help manifest and advance social pathologies. Have we not recognised that Monis was a walking Venn diagram of victim handouts, subsidised weirdness and extremist hatred? To be the quintessential welfare queen and a psychopathic, parasitic criminal are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, in this case they were symbiotic.’
20/12/2014: GILLARD: Royal Commissioner Heydon did not exonerate her (as the ABC reported). Quite the contrary: he found that she LIED and took STOLEN money. Shorten doesn’t come off as the Knight in Shining Armour either. It is worth noting that he recommends charges against her co-accused, Wilson & Blewitt. The Victorian Police investigation may still take action against her (despite the change of Government): http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/royal_commission_gillard_told_untruths_boyfriend_paid_for_renovations_with_/ & http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/
20/12/2014: One line leaps out from former High Court judge Dyson Heydon’s Royal Commission into Union Corruption:… there is virtually no evidence of Julia Gillard’s good reputation and character beyond that which is to be inferred from her status as a former Prime Minister …This was in response to a request from Gillard’s lawyers that the commission “give significant weight to Ms Gillard’s good character and reputation.” Heydon continued: This is a mystifying submission. It is a dangerous submission…If some such presumption were adopted, it would always be the case that the powerful, the celebrated and the successful will have undue advantages over the weak, the obscure and those of moderate achievement. Then would be the time to ask the question: ‘Little man, what now?’ It is a strange submission to be advanced on behalf of a former politician belonging to the Australian Labor Party tradition – a tradition of social democracy.’
20/12/2014: What a wonderful ‘new’ discovery: 500,000 year old ‘writing’ on a shell by homo erectus. Clearly too the letter ‘m’ (or ‘w’!) begins the spelling out (I’m sure) of ‘man’ (or possibly ‘woman’ or ‘Adam’ – more shells needed). The Neanderthals (also) seem to have ‘invented’ the ‘hash-tag.’ How wondrous it must have been to have shared the earth with OTHER truly human ‘races’: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429983.200-shell-art-made-300000-years-before-humans-evolved.html
20/12/2014: Spotted Pardalote: This morning walking down to the creek to check on the pump I spied a young pair of these which have obviously taken up residence in our roadside plantation. It is so encouraging to see such birds taking advantage of all our work:
19/12/2014: Whilst you may have jocularly described
some acquaintance as a ‘vegie’, TRUTH is stranger than fiction, and genes have
a few tricks up their sleeves to teach
19/12/2014: Cable ties are just GREAT…so MANY uses: http://topclosure.com/ Incidentally, have you TRIED handcuffing yourself with one to see whether you really CAN get the wretched thing off? They are not SO chewable, let me tell you! Always lots of fun (& games) happening around here, you see! I think everyone should be wearing the Leatherdos hair clip just in case they DO get handcuffed with cable ties: http://www.animicausa.com/shop/Best-sellers/Leatherdos-Mini-tools-clip/tpflypage.tpl.html
19/12/2014: SELF-DEFENCE #2: How long do you think that evil bastard would have lasted if even half the people who were in the Lindt Café had handguns?
18/12/2014:
18/12/2014: Quote of the week: ‘Don’t mention the
war’: Julian Disney: ‘the
18/12/2014: HOBBITS: Looking forward to
18/12/2014: SELF-DEFENCE: I understand the fate of
most ‘Cassandras’ (that though they see the future correctly, their
prognostications will not be believed), but I think the market must nearly be
at bottom (there are some GREAT buys out there). Even if this is not the case,
including some security firms and product suppliers in your portfolio would
have to be a good bet: we can surely ALL understand from the
18/12/2014: Ride on a bus or train with them? What a
solution: sooner or later the bus or train will blow up –just like
17/12/2014: Meanwhile, Baby ‘Rufus’ is fledging:
17/12/2014: We wake to the news that the Taliban has
murdered 140+ children in
17/12/2014: Two very different interpretations of yesterday’s events: Touche to Larry Pickering: ‘The cries of “lone wolf attack” echo through the media as a politically correct alternative to “Islamic terrorism”: AND ALLAH SAID TO THE LONE WOLF, “GO FORTH AND MULTIPLY”... and he did! Alternatively, this represents the Left’s ‘take’ on yesterday’s events: Wendy Bacon (now a Professor of Journalism) ‘Clearing of cars in (the) CBD gives you an idea of how pleasant (a) carless city might be.’ I remember this ‘creature’ from the ‘Vietnam Moratorium’ days when she was oblivious to the 8 MILLION S-E Asians MURDERED by her FELLOW communists: she is no better today, IF NOT WORSE!
17/12/2014: Upholding our policy of
non-discrimination: Surely it is CLEAR NOW that something needs to be done
about the ‘Moslem Problem’? We need to begin reducing all the associated risks
YESTERDAY, but certainly not tomorrow. We could simultaneously act against ALL
religions, so it is clear we are against ALL such insanity. Since 1901 our
Federal Constitution has prohibited
16/12/2014: Ah, religious progress is such a fine thing: http://www.eyeofthetiber.com/2014/12/12/pope-francis-confirms-cats-still-going-to-hell/ Mind you the average Moslem cleric teaches that women don’t have souls; I have met a few like that myself – but quite a lot of fellas also lacking in that department!
16/12/2014: Who needs a tent? Don’t use one myself. Everything you ever wanted to know about tarps: http://www.equipped.org/tarp-shelters.htm
16/12/2014: HE was NOT just a ‘lone nutter’; ‘Monis…
had more than 14,000 "likes" on…Facebook’ http://www.smh.com.au/national/martin-place-siege-man-haron-monis-has-long-history-of-hatred-of-politicians-20141215-127t01.html
It is hard to understand why police/security services did not act MUCH sooner.
It must have been clear to them within five minutes of the ‘siege’ beginning
WHO he was and that he was a murderer, rapist and terrorist advocate. His face
was clearly identifiable (and TARGETABLE) through the café window. After the
events at the Broad Arrow Café we all know that a ‘lone gunman’ is capable of
shooting 20 Australians through the head in less than 30seconds (whether it was
Martin Bryant or not). A level of carnage was to be expected right from the
beginning in this situation. Armour piercing bullets would have killed him
(through the plate glass window) before 10:30 am YESTERDAY. The ONLY reason
police might have been hesitant was that his backpack may have contained a bomb
fitted with a ‘tilt switch,’ such that it would explode if he lay down. The risk
of that had to be weighed against the lives of all in the café once he began
shooting them – obviously given his history, a near certainty. The decision to
shoot him pre-emptively should have been taken by Scipione LONG before lunch
yesterday, certainly long before dark when clearly the situation would become
much more dangerous…Sydney and Melbourne really will be turned into other
Baghdads, Kabuls, Damascuses unless we get a handle on the problem of Islamic
fundamentalism and immigration. We need to be reversing this trend – as a
number of countries (eg
15/12/2014: Song ‘White Christmas’ Denounced as Racist!
15/12/2014: There is some good news (so far as the bludjahideen are concerned) at least: ‘Australians going to fight with extremist groups in the Middle East are dying as fast as they are arriving, meaning that the total number of fighters has remained stable at about 70, security agency ASIO has revealed.’ http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australian-jihadists-arriving-and-dying-at-same-rate-in-middle-east-asio-20141211-12584u.html
15/12/2014: Della’s new Xmas sleeping bag has arrived. I used to be such an advocate of Montbell’s Ultralight Superstretch Down Hugger #3, a minus 1C bag - mine (recently) washed weighs 738 grams in its compression bag on my scales; still a GREAT bag. Della’s new Zpacks Medium, Regular, -7C weighs 499 grams in its compression sack – and it is 6C warmer - as well as being 240 grams lighter! Astonishing: http://www.zpacks.com/quilts/sleepingbag.shtml
14/12/2014: EXACTLY, Paul Kelly: ‘With more than $25 billion in savings yet to be passed, Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens said the issue was whether Australia had a sustainable fiscal position over the medium term. He said for the past five years people had voted for “good things” from government but without voting for the revenue to pay for it…In his final speech, outgoing Treasury chief Martin Parkinson said the nation “has a structural problem at the heart of the budget” and that without action we face “a decade of deficits, rising debt” and limited policy ability to manage future shocks.’
14/12/2014: Velikovsky it ain’t (which is probably just as well), but we need a reminder every now and then that civilisation CAN simply collapse: http://www.amazon.com/1177-B-C-Civilization-Collapsed-Turning/dp/0691140898
14/12/2014: These tiny luminous line
locks (.7 gram ea) are just great http://www.clamcleat.com/cleats/cleat_details.asp?theid2=95
as is ultra light 1.25 high viz spectra
cord (eg avail http://www.zpacks.com/accessories/spectra_cord.shtml
) which (together) makes for a perfect guy line for a hiking tent/tarp.
13/12/2014: Moonlight casts shadows; sometimes you forget…most places there is so much ambient light, you see nothing, know nothing. Last night during one of my elderly nightly sojourns to the bathroom I glanced out the back window and was surprised to see several small black creatures sitting on the new steps in the moonlight. I had to go fetch my glasses to see what they were as I was curious as to what critters had so early claimed this structure as their own. Alas, they were but moon shadows. I did notice yesterday however whilst working on the steps that a colony of ants had already claimed the vertical rails as a highway, so no doubt it won’t be long before others follow! Nature has a way of seizing every opportunity as its own.
13/12/2014: Several electorates have not even finished counting before the CFMEU decided it would flex its (new) muscle and close down construction on an Aldi supermarket. Four more year’s of just such union bastardry (and Labor incompetence) to look forward to! GO Dan!
13/12/2014: Australian Alps Walking Track: 4 Days: Walhalla to Stronach’s Camp (Description):
12/12/2014: (As usual) our local paper had over a
dozen job ads for ‘needed’ Council staff the other day: There was only ONE position
which I even recognised as a job (Road Maintenance). All the others were just
some sort of gobbledegook, button sorting or hedgehog patting…which (should I
live to be a thousand!) I doubt I will ever see the need for. Our utterly
Marxist Councils have been advancing their imposts on us at a geometric rate -
ours now wants $30 a week from us, twice what the
Internet costs us – but as far as I can see there is no work they do which we
need or want (we have a septic tank, our own water supply; there are beautiful
rivers to swim in; I can’t imagine the last time I used a library; clubs and
Associations I belong to are self-funding, & etc, etc). I think I may start
a ‘Council Reform’ ticket which promises to halve Council rates and Council
employees (WHY stop there?). I am sure it would garner lots of support from
distressed ratepayers sick to death of being drained dry by these blood-sucking
parasites and mini-Hitlers!
12/12/2014: How does your garden grow? Ours is pushing
out to about 2 ACRES, and we don’t plan to stop there: When we have planted out
our remaining 25 (plus out roadside plantations), we MAY ease off a little. Did
you see the post the other day by some IPCC hippie lunatic who calculated the
‘value’ of a tree to be somewheres about $193K? Holy Cow! By his reckoning the
2-300 trees we planted this year ALONE makes us worth over $50 MILLION! And
then there’s the hundreds (nay thousands) of trees
we have planted/caused to grow during our lifetimes. Della and I may be (tree)
billionaires! Where DO we COLLECT? This is just my guess…but I reckon (just
maybe) more gardens, more trees have been planted by Conservatives than will
ever be planted by our left-wing or emerald brethren – I suspect the latter
have never, WILL never plant a single thing: inner Melbourne’s concrete resists
seeds so vigorously, (you would need to create a Government Department, THEN
hire public servants, and then…the latte calls!
12/12/2014: Upper Yarra Track: Some History: http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/…/pdf_file/0017/313181/22_2158.pdf
11/12/2014: I have been building a set of steps for Della at the back of the house (you may have noticed her post). Still not finished. They would have been such a boon for me all those @ 25 years of winter’s nights as I led hounds down that wet, slippery slope (and back) to take them hunting the majestic sambar in our wonderful Gippsland mountains. Now (I am old), the hounds are gone and a garden is taking their place with over 100 trees already planted in their yards, and Della will need safe access to them! When we have finished the steps (and tidied up the yards a bit more) you may be taken on a tour! Meanwhile the grevilleas with which we planted out the back slope (and which Della has been busily mulching today) are attracting lots of honey-eaters & etc. Yesterday while working on the steps in the heat, I counted four species of honey-eaters and a fantail enjoying them, as well as our usual resident wrens, wagtails, etc!
11/12/2014: Upper Yarra Track: A Rare Treat: in digital form a facsimile of Annie Hoffa’s 1929 book, ‘The Real Thing, Adventures in the Australian Bush’ detailing her 1928 solo walk from Walhalla to Warburton. Sadly, Dr Yoffa was murdered by a madman (whose name weirdly enough was also Jones – NO relation!) in 1959: http://www.yarrarangesbushcamp.com/dr-annie-yoffas-1928-walk-from-warburton-to-walhalla.html
11/12/2014: ‘Ultimately, “the State” is a synonym for “organized violence.” “If you refuse to pay your taxes,” Representative David Brat recently noted, “you will lose. You will go to jail, and if you fight, you will lose. The government holds a monopoly on violence. Any law that we vote for is ultimately backed by the full force of our government and military.” In consequence, Brat proposed, we should be careful about when and how that violence is utilized. Certainly, civilized nations need laws. But it is one thing to recruit armed men to prevent murder and rape and grievous bodily harm, and it is quite another to do so in order to regulate the manner in which cigarettes may be sold. Eric Garner was not killed while robbing a bank or starting a fight in a bar, but while selling tobacco on the street without a license. Is this really what the state is for?’ Probably this guy died as a result of resisting arrest rather than selling rollies, and he died from a heart attack not from being choked, and it had nothing to do with racism (the supervising officer was herself an African American)…however, we have FAR too many quite trivial laws backed up by the threat of extreme violence by the state. At least the Abbott Government has been spending two days a year of Parliamentary sittings REMOVING laws and regulations (thousands so far!) For myself, they could spend 365 days doing this for quite some time yet! http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/199222/
10/12/2014: Upper Yarra Track: The ‘Lost’ Yarra Falls
allegedly
10/12/2014: The hydroponic tomato/pepper, strawberry/etc jungle in the $69 Mitre 10 greenhouse now; also featuring our first ripe tomatoes and peppers:
10/12/2014: The world is CHANGING (in awesome ways!):
Brett Arends: ‘There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it: We’re no
longer No. 1. Today, we’re No. 2. Yes, it’s official. The Chinese economy just
overtook the
09/12/2014: We can ill afford to do without a car industry,
manufacturing generally, refineries, farmers…all that is being destroyed
recently while both sides of politics ‘fiddle while Rome burns’ (though
evidently this was a canard against Nero), whilst the Greens CHEER & fan
the flames. WAKE UP
09/12/2014:
09/12/2014: Well said, Rowan: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/opinion-australia-wins-my-darwin-award-for-dumbest-nation-on-earth/story-fnihsr9v-1227147788128?nk=8674b20ac365d6102d3a4d1412d01633
09/12/2014: Upper Yarra Track: Zoomable map of 1907 Route: http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview/?pi=nla.map-rm2301-sd&rgn=0.1647354460,0.0000000000,0.8348457350,0.9991673605&width=1200&cmd=zoomout You could, I suspect trespass your way much of the ‘route’ if you didn’t mind a tad of ‘bush-bashing.’ One thing you could certainly do would be to walk the 800 metres down off the ‘Forty Mile Break Road’ to have a look at the quite spectacular ‘Yarra Falls’ (as this guy did: http://archive.bigben.id.au/victoria/melb/yarra_falls.html) :
![[ melb070 ]](2014%20Blog_files/image038.jpg)
09/12/2014: These folk have
reinvented the keyring: http://getkeysmart.com/
08/12/2014:
08/12/2014: WE CAN BUILD YOU: For just $49 you can by a plastic and electronic simulacrum of a REAL ANIMAL, in this case a flatworm. Scientists are working on making an artificial mouse in the same way. It IS only a matter of time before it is an artificial human: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429972.300-first-digital-animal-will-be-perfect-copy-of-real-worm.html#.VIPMLXu8pzM
08/12/2014: FIRELIGHTING TIP: You know how when you are trying to light a fire (or Brasslite Stove – as pictured) with a cigarette lighter how you burn your fingers? A strip of bicycle inner tube will hold a Mini Bic (such as I carry – in a snap lock bag to keep it dry) in the On position and prevent this, and can be used as an excellent firelighter itself when kindling is very wet:
07/12/2014: A follow up to yesterday’s post ‘I’m Obese Because I Don’t Get Enough Taxpayer Money,’ Today’s Quote of the Week: "How come looters never steal work boots?"
07/12/2014: Why DO we still imprison people? This VILE idea (unknown and repugnant to the ancient Greeks and Romans = Read: Sallust, ‘The Catiline Conspiracy’) has been a relatively recent phenomenon, a case of misplaced ‘kindness;’ (the Quakers it was who invented the ‘Penitentiary’). It is not such a place as would be likely to ‘reform’ any. Fill someone’s many years with the company of such ‘friends’ as one is likely to find there, and you will at best CREATE a felon, if not a monster. How utterly evil is it to lock a person in a cage? It is far more civilised to punish the body in the belief that pain will at least create avoidance, if not virtue: a fine for a lesser ‘offence’, followed by gradations of ‘corporal’ punishment; when all else fails: off with the head: ‘capital’ punishment is ‘just deserts’ and merciful release for both sinner and sinned against. (NB: Deserts here is the plural of desert, meaning "that which one deserves") It is all about PUNISHMENT and REWARD. Too often we forget to reward: I would REWARD criminals who CHOOSE to donate their bodies (RIGHT NOW!) for transplant surgery. Let them choose to have their (cash) reward (say $250,000 each – the cost of two years incarceration) go to someone they love, or a charity of their choice.
07/12/2014: 130 grams is not very
much to carry to save your life: http://www.equipped.org/blog/?p=284
06/12/2014: You’ve probably watched this fabulous documentary, or at least seen stills from it (http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/cave-of-forgotten-dreams) – if you haven’t you should! The cave lions still haunt me, as do the horses, the three dimensionality and the sense of movement. Ancestral man was wondrously clever - as evidenced by this astonishing 32,000 year old statuette of a (cave) lion-man: http://theinquisition.eu/wordpress/2011/history/the-lion-man/
06/12/2014: It can only be a matter
of time before someone ‘captures’ a ghost, or an alien: http://gearjunkie.com/spooky-trail-cam-photos
06/12/2014: THAT would be right: BLAME the Government: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/388887/350-pound-woman-im-obese-because-i-dont-get-enough-taxpayer-money-katherine-timpf
05/12/2014: Upper Yarra Walking Track: update 2: I
suggest you spend a weekend first checking it out, as follows: Drive to
Walhalla; after you have looked around there, go back to Rawson, then North to
the Mt Erica/Mushroom Rocks Rd (off the Thompson Valley Rd North of Rawson).
Take a walk all the way to
05/12/2014:
Australian Alps Walking Track near
Australian Alps Walking Track near Mushroom Rocks car park.
Australian Alps Walking Track near Mushroom Rocks.
04/12/2014: The Upper Yarra Walking Track (82 km)
which extends from Warburton to Walhalla is
The Ada Tree off
The new
Still some great timber around: 1939 regrowth! — at
M15 Track off
03/12/2014:
Della: Day 3 of our reconnaissance of the Upper Yarra walking track: We cannot
believe that such an outstandingly beautiful area lies so close to home and,
even more amazingly, so close to
Ada Tree Rainforest Walk near Noojee
Ada Tree Rainforest Walk near Noojee
Ada Tree Rainforest Walk near Noojee
Ada Tree Rainforest Walk near Noojee
Ada Tree Rainforest Walk near Noojee
Prostanthera looking fabulous at the summit of Mt Horsefall
02/12/2014: Della: Checking out the
View from Mt Horsefall across the
Newlands Track near Toorongo
Myrtle Beech
Tree Ferns
Spot eager to be gone
Camp in the Mist Block 10 Rd near Toorongo
01/12/2014: At LAST, a broken zipper FIXER: http://www.equipped.org/blog/?p=86
01/12/2014: Well SAID: ‘What is necessary to “fix” the economy is not the printing of more money, not even if it is distributed to citizens directly instead of being given to banks in exchange for both their dodgy and not-so-dodgy securities. The best thing government can do is nothing at all. However, we will amend this advice by adding that if governments really feel a need to be proactive, they should reduce regulations, lower taxes or simply generally shrink the State with all that implies.’ http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/here-comes-the-ultimate-keynesian-scam-helicopter-money-for-the-people-not-just-banks/
01/12/2014: A VERY interesting blog; bookmark it: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/ I particularly liked the story of Alonzo Cushing awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour 151 years after his death (http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/33522) & of the excavation of Alexander’s boyhood friend and soul-mate Hephaestion’s tomb (http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/33333)...
01/12/2014: What a great duck: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152863991271661&set=vb.118526656660&type=2&theater
30/11/2014: And they say we have s--t public trans[port: http://www.gizmag.com/geneco-bio-bus/34978/ And just in case you want to do where no man has gone before: http://www.gizmag.com/human-waste-rocket-fuel/34961/
30/11/2014: Great Xmas idea ($39.95!) : http://www.gizmag.com/skeye-nano-drone/34893/
30/11/2014: Why do they have to design $800 electronic devices that break when dropped to be so slippery? http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2014/11/droid-turbo-review.html
29/11/2014: I may believe it tomorrow, but I can’t believe today that the Victorian public would be STUPID enough to plunge us into another FOUR YEARS of socialist Government (and no East-West Link for a decade at least)!
29/11/2014: These 25K Vicmaps are GREAT and value @ $8 ea: http://services.land.vic.gov.au/maps/content/topo30wizard They can be viewed with full georeferenceing functionality (ie GPS, etc) with this great App on your phone, tablet etc: http://www.avenza.com/pdf-maps You need never get lost and can safely plan your next adventure, eg to walk the ‘Upper Yarra Trail’ from Warburton to Walhalla 82 km (in which case you would need Neerim North 25k_T8022-2-N, Noojee North 25k_T8122-3-N, Walhalla North 25k_T8122-2-N & Walhalla South 25k_T8122-2-S). This trail should be a great treat in the warmer weather if you have 4-6 days, but you can do it in @ two day sections: eg the Baw Baw Plateau is magnificent (and @ 10C cooler than Melbourne).
29/11/2014: What a very interesting article; we must weather the storm of this 2nd or 3rd ‘industrial revolution’; overall it will bring enormous benefits, but there are winners and losers: As I said in my post on 25th, Marriage, Education, & Work are GOOD IDEAS!): http://qz.com/298405/an-economist-explains-what-the-heck-is-happening-to-the-global-economy/
28/11/2014: Cleaning Down Bags: Thanks to my friend
Brett for his advice about washing/treating (down) sleeping bags. I have now
used Nikwax’s Down Wash & Down Proof products (sent from
28/11/2014: There HAS to be a LIMIT to ‘sharing’. Robin Hood was surely not as stringent as our modern nanny state: http://www.aei.org/publication/new-cbo-study-shows-rich-dont-just-pay-fair-share-pay-almost-everybodys-share/
28/11/2014: Do those folks who have
Chinese tattoos read something like these to the Chinese? http://twistedsifter.com/2014/11/japanese-discount-store-shirts-with-random-english-words/
27/11/2014: Robert Heinlein: ‘Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as “bad luck.”’
27/11/2014: While you’re looking at ‘ruta locura’s’ web-site (Sp = crazy journey; I like!) you might notice their Tenkara trout fly rod conversion for a hiking pole. Now that’s a good idea if you’re a keen fly fisher (as you ought be!): http://www.rutalocura.com/Tenkara.html
27/11/2014: A 5% efficiency saving over 5 years equates to a 10% cut to staff right NOW? And, I notice particularly that cuts will be to those very service areas where the ABC has responsibility (there being NO competitors – eg regional news) whilst there will be an expansion of those areas already well supplied by the private media. I notice the percentage of the ABC’s budget spent on wages is 46% whilst the private media industry standard is 11%!: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/yoga_chickens/
26/11/2014: Thinking about Xmas presents? I notice these folks have nice (light 113 grams) three-piece carbon fibre poles which telescope to 50cm thus fitting in your pack when not in use. I managed to lose one of my two-piece poles pushing through thick bush on the Mt Darling Track last week. I was carrying it on the outside of my pack in case my crook knee gave out on me (in which case I could take down my rifle and swap it for a pair of poles). Being longer than the pack, a fork in some regrowth must have fished it out without my noticing, so that now I need to replace it. (Note to self: TIE them in!) I looked carefully on the way back, but did not sight it (probably whipped away off the line of track, I guess): http://www.rutalocura.com/trekking_poles3.html
26/11/2014: Greens are a STRANGE lot: you would think if they really CARED for the bush, you would occasionally run into them hiking, hunting, fishing etc – or that country electorates might well be represented by Greens members. As it is you never find them elsewhere than the inner city creating crazy hazards on bicycles! The clearly care NOTHING for the REAL bush: it is some imaginary world they wish to SAVE. It is strange also that areas they have (successfully?) ‘saved’ (for ‘future generations’) such as the Mt Darling-Snowy Bluff wilderness where I was last week (legally – though Spot wasn’t!) are closed to everyone EXCEPT deer hunters. No-one else may legally venture there (off track) - and they have closed all the tracks! (making any ‘management’ impossible. Just when it will become legal for ‘future generations’ to enjoy the ‘wilderness’ so protected is a mystery to me.
26/11/2014:
Thank You, ‘Bird Dog’, and hurrah: ‘In the
25/11/2014: Work Time: It is astonishing to me how many grumble about how much of a drag on their time work IS. Methinks: overmuch. I guess the ‘average’ Oz works @ 38 hours/week @ 48 weeks/year ie 1824 hours out of total hours per year of 8764 ie 20.8%. They do this for @ 50 of 80 years of their life (.625 of their time) resulting in a total of only 13% of their ‘allotted span’, giving them 87% of their time to be doing something else (worthwhile?) - And I am not counting: sick leave, maternity leave, long service leave… Maybe 90%?
25/11/2014: The ABC/SBS (which deserve much more drastic reform/abolition) will face EFFICIENCY cuts of 1% per year for five years. THAT is ALL! Organisations whose (hundreds of) executives/journos are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars simply to churn out commie/greenie/racist propaganda! And who (deservedly) have an audience of 0-10%! (Actually NO-ONE watches the NDIS at all!) This is hardly a massacre! ADF (and ALL other Federal public servants) are copping the SAME cuts - mostly without demur! The (incredibly leftist) ABC/SBS (with an audience of @ 10%!) costs the public $1.3 BILLION. The other 90% of the media costs the public NOTHING (well, actually makes a PROFIT!) Cuts of 1% to the ABC/SBS are BIG NEWS? Get REAL! Lets get rid of the whole unnecessary propaganda machine altogether!
25/11/2014: Take a look at the graphic. See if YOU see what I see. Things are certainly not very different HERE either, (ie Marriage, Education, & Work are GOOD IDEAS!):
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2014/11/poverty-and-the-minimum-wage.html
Poverty and the Minimum Wage | Coyote Blog
www.coyoteblog.com
24/11/2014: It’s been a bad year: I
have not spent (much) more than a month sleeping outdoors, away from home this
year – still, there are nearly six weeks to go! But I have been HERE (and many
other beautiful places) - and you have a solid day’s WALK to get there:
24/11/2014: Posts about my oldest daughter’s birthday proved nearly as popular as those about crayfish. Clearly we need to take Irralee fishing with us next time we go!
24/11/2014: Just LOOK at these crazy old commies! Just
yesterday Bracks ripped out beautiful elms and oaks and replaced them with this
awful native rubbish! (Gums grow more than 50cm/year in diameter – so how can
these be ‘heritage’?) Labor has opposed EVERY freeway development in
23/11/2014: Happy 33rd Birthday to our firstborn, Irralee! — with Irralee Jones and 5 others.
23/11/2014: Understand THIS, these Google scientists
wanted to PROVE the VIABILITY of renewables. After four years' study, they
conclude that renewables will always be a DISASTER: 'At the start...we had
shared the attitude of many stalwart environmentalists: We felt that with
steady improvements to today’s renewable energy technologies, our society could
stave off catastrophic climate change. We now know that to be a false hope
…Renewable energy technologies simply won’t work; we need a fundamentally different approach...Even if one were to
electrify all of transport, industry, heating and so on, so much renewable
generation and balancing/storage equipment would be needed to power it that
astronomical new requirements for steel, concrete, copper, glass, carbon fibre,
neodymium, shipping and haulage etc etc would appear. All these things are made
using mammoth amounts of energy: far from achieving massive energy savings,
which most plans for a renewables future rely on implicitly, we would wind up
needing far more energy, which would mean even more vast renewables farms – and
even more materials and energy to make and maintain them and so on. The scale
of the building would be like nothing ever attempted by the human race.' http://wattsupwiththat.com/…/shocker-top-google-engineers-…/
23/11/2014: Hard to BELIEVE a third of a century has wafted by since we last watched the excellent movie, ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ waiting for our first-born to arrive. Della would rather have hurried to the hospital and miss the end of the movie (Unthinkable!), AND she could not believe I also had to wash my feet before I drove her there. She can still be as impatient and I as eccentric, but all three of us are still here together today. Wonderful!
23/11/2014: I cannot believe folks may once again vote
for the treasonous Labor party next weekend. They have NOT changed since WW2:
‘In January 1944, with twenty-one mines shut and
23/11/2014: There WAS some sexism back then too which
I would also have disliked, ‘Each church had a guy assigned to wake up drowsers
with a long stick with a feather on one end (for the ladies) and a knob on the
other end (to conk the drowsy men on the head).’
23/11/2014: Mark Reckless’ acceptance speech: ‘ If you believe in freedom, if you believe
in low taxes, if you believe in clean government, if you believe in localism,
if you believe in people power. If you believe that the world is bigger than
Europe, if you believe in an independent
22/11/2014: SUPPORT Peter Spencer! We were among the thousands of Australian farmers who were ROBBED of hundreds of thousands of dollars by this tyranny. Read the full article and maybe DONATE, as we have done: http://joannenova.com.au/2014/11/peter-spencer-versus-the-commonwealth-starts-monday-in-the-federal-court-help-needed/
22/11/2014: LET THERE BE LIGHT: Philips 14 watt LED 1400 lumens avail Bunnings. THIS is as good as incandescents ever were! http://www.philips.com.au/c-p/8718291753254/led-bulb
22/11/2014: MORE about feminists and SHIRTS: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a total, sexist tool! He explained why he wears plain grey T-shirts every day. ‘I’d feel I’m not doing my job if I spent any of my energy on things that are silly or frivolous about my life.’ Now, THAT'S really demeaning all those folks (women?) who spend SO much time trying to look ‘nice’. For SHAME!
22/11/2014: Tony has some great team members, eg: Scott stopped the boats dead in a MONTH! Andrew Robb has negotiated THREE massive free trade deals in a year! (More to come). Josh has deleted vast swathes of red tape and regulation costing billions (now, TWICE a year!) Julie is just WONDERFUL. Joe and Matthias are still hard-slogging along (AND making progress) against a handful of nutter Greens and other Lefties intent on burning our children’s money forever. This week Tony has been fêting BOTH the Chinese and Indian heads of state, not to mention French, German…GREAT work, guys! Meanwhile Ju-Liar tells the RC that it should ignore the evidence against her because of her ‘good character’? YES, you heard that right?
21/11/2014: WILDERNESS: Just spent a couple of days
with Spot in the heart of the Snowy Bluff-Mt Darling Wilderness. The ‘easy’ way
in is to follow the old ‘
Head of Mt Darling Creek (
The road to: the Devil's Elbow
The road to: Bennison Lookout
Carey 'Road' (falsely) promised easy going.
Lots of pretty purple wildflowers on the snow grass plains, but not a patch on Della's roses!
Mt Darling 'Track'
Mt Darling Track: the sign reads, 'Track Closed' !
Spot enjoying himself at the Mt Darling Gap.
19/11/2014:
19/11/2014: FEMINISTS! Kim can wear NOTHING (and
nothing said)! This guy lands a spaceship on a comet and they go into
hyperdrive about his SHIRT. The woman who made the shirt and gave it to
19/11/2014: Our $69 Mitre 10 greenhouse tomatoes have really rocketed since we planted them back in August:
18/11/2014: If I ever think to feel sorry for folks in wheelchairs it is because they can no longer CHOOSE to pursue a path other than one already laid down by others. Some WHERE a wheel can go. Where a wheel can go is necessarily more constrained (less free) than where a foot can go. Most less (physically) constrained folk do NOT CHOOSE to travel farther than their ‘handicapped’ brethren. Though they may be quite peripatetic (and clock up many thousands of kilometres annually on their personal odometers), such migrations are almost exclusively on ways already prepared by others: defined routes: roads, rail, airplanes…So little of most people’s life journeys are where muscle and sinew alone will take them, through wilderness: on foot or by canoe, for example. My feeling is that NOTHING ELSE (except mayhap IMAGINATION) comprises a JOURNEY at all! Journey’s end is maybe a peak somewhere (Mt Darling?) or a shady spot by a river. Beyond EVERY such ‘end’ is another journey: other peaks extend over the horizon; around the river’s bend fresh vistas beckon, there remains yet another remote beach…all such travel is very simple: place ONE foot firmly in front of another. Repeat.
18/11/2014: Oh, WOW: the Greens and Palmer have struck a preference deal! So nice to have the choice of PRINCIPLED parties to vote for…the Liberals have put the Greens where they (quite properly) deserve to be (if not in gaol): ie LAST!
18/11/2014: You could have THIS: “Norwegian women must take responsibility for the fact that Muslim men find their manner of dress provocative. And since these men believe women are responsible for rape, the women must adapt to the multicultural society around them.” OR this: ‘The National Police Immigration Service of Norway, Politiets Utlendingsenhet (PU), deported a record 824 people in October. The previous record was set in the previous month when 763 people were deported.’ YOU choose: http://pickeringpost.com/story/erna-grabs-a-problem-by-the-balls/4133 . Come ON Scott; let’s get started on this! NB: “Oslo Local News” reports violent crime has decreased by 31 per cent after a record number of immigrants were deported by Norwegian authorities.
17/11/2014: Our internet woes continue… this morning we are getting 1.3 megs out of the NBN (!) and our DSL line (which we thought ‘fixed’) has been intermittent too (possibly the same cause: a major fibre outage in Traralgon)…
17/11/2014: BEES around here aren’t threatened. Tree holes ars SO jam-packed they have taken to living underneath fence rails:
17/11/2014:
16/11/2014: Baggage: Most folks (seem to) like nothing better than lugging vast chunks of stuff around. They require huge boxes (buildings) to cram it into, and huge wheeled thingummies to cart it all around in, all of which usually means they WASTE vast chunks of time acquiring, paying for and maintaining it all (worrying about whether someone will steal it & etc) and very little time actually going places, doing things or even just ‘smelling the roses,’ all of which is just kind of SAD. All of this largesse is supposed to be better than a gunyah! Maybe not. The two LIGHTEST shelters I have encountered are Six Moon Designs ‘Gatewood Cape [named after Emma Gatewood the first (67 year old) woman to through-hike the entire Appalacian trail] (313 grams) which DOUBLES as a raincoat & Zpacks ‘Solo Plus Tarp’ 210 grams = http://www.zpacks.com/shelter/hexamid_plus.shtml) . Both require a floor (which adds @ 100 grams) which in Zpack’s case could be http://www.zpacks.com/accessories/groundsheet_poncho.shtml (@ 144-177 grams) which also doubles as a raincoat. Either of these does away with that EXCESS BAGGAGE and makes a most satisfactory ‘gunyah’, all you really need to sit out a wet day/night in and watch the passing parade (of wildlife/wild flowers etc) from…
16/11/2014: Life Expectancy: For many years we have
had the (companion) books ‘Man’s (and Woman’s) Body/ies’ (1976). Though they
have dated somewhat (as have WE!) over the four decades we have owned them,
they still contain many fascinating titbits: This, for example, the ‘Life
Expectancy’ charts (at B01-04). Here you can see (that in 1976) the ‘average 25
year old’s (me then)‘life expectancy was 70 (men) or 77 (women). For comparison
the average 65 year old’s (me now) was 78 (men) and 82 (woman). We are told now
that (in the ensuing 40 years) average life expectancy has increased by @ one
year per decade. QUALITY of life might NOT have! Surprisingly now (at 65) I am
likely to live 8 more years than I was likely to (live) when I was 25! Eight
more years than my 25 year old daughter even – which seems counter-intuitive!
How is this so? Well, I have (so far) avoided) all the things which killed my
peers who did not survive (as I have) to 65. The gloomy aspects of such
forecasts (as ‘life expectancy’) is that they are AVERAGES. The average 65 year
old man (in 1976) was like to live to 78. Obviously half would not (else it
would not be an average). What you hope (mayhap foolishly!) is that you will be
in the former 50%! (and not spend the few years gained slumped on a chair in
some corner dribbling and soiling yourself.) It is worth remembering that Cecil
Rhodes died in his forties, having achieved massive wealth and renown, eg
having had TWO whole COUNTRIES (NOW Zambia = Northern and
16/11/2014: Gerber Knives: For lightness (and cheapness) I recommend: http://au.gerbergear.com/Essentials/Knives/LST-Knife_46009 @ 34 grams, blade = 6.7cm (2¼”) & http://au.gerbergear.com/Essentials/Knives/Ultralight-LST-Knife_460502 @ 17 grams, blade = 5cm (1.9”) and their Pocket Sharpener http://www.knifecenter.com/item/GB4307/Gerber-Ceramic-Pocket-Sharpener @ 14 grams. Both knives PLUS the sharpener shouldn’t set you back more than @ $25!
LST Ultralight
15/11/2014: ABSOLUTELY: ‘A rule not ultimately backed by the threat of violence is merely a suggestion. States rely on laws enforced by men ready to do violence against lawbreakers. Every tax, every code and every licensing requirement demands an escalating progression of penalties that, in the end, must result in the forcible seizure of property or imprisonment by armed men prepared to do violence in the event of resistance or non–compliance. Every time a soccer mom stands up and demands harsher penalties for drunk driving, or selling cigarettes to minors, or owning a pit bull, or not recycling, she is petitioning the state to use force to impose her will. She is no longer asking nicely. The viability of every family law, gun law, zoning law, traffic law, immigration law, import law, export law and financial regulation depends on both the willingness and wherewithal of the group to exact order by force.’ http://www.jack-donovan.com/axis/2011/03/violence-is-golden/
14/11/2014: The Leatherman Micra is the greatest mini-tool I have encountered so far (@51 grams). I always have one in my pocket AND in my hiking pack. NOTHING I have discovered is as good for cutting one’s toe-nails – a vital safety precaution on multi-day hikes when toe-nail problems can lead to disaster! http://www.leatherman.com/20.html If you want to skip a few features you might go for their skeletonised version: http://www.leatherman.com/24.html#start=21
14/11/2014: INTERNET: We have been struggling for
three weeks plus with a dying connection/service and have finally bitten the
bullet and signed up for the (Fixed Wireless) NBN with Aussie Broadband (a
local Australian company with local Australian employees and support – what a
great PLUS THAT is!) who installed it yesterday. Such a change. For example I
have finally been able to update my various web pages which had become
corrupted/stalled (eg http://www.finnsheep.com/Ultralight%20Hiking.htm
which SEEMS to be working again this morning). We are receiving a little under
20 megs, which is a long way up on the 6 megs which was the best we achieved
with ADSL2+ and a lot up on the ZERO our DSL is delivering right now. We will
still fight (the
14/11/2014: Well DONE Richard Overton: http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/11/11/americas-oldest-living-veteran-108-still-enjoys-a-whiskey-and-a-cigar/
13/11/2014: ‘Who Is Harry Nilsson?’ Watch this ‘doco’. It’s great (You’ll love the songs, if nothing else!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzEY6ZqkuE
13/11/2014: I bought these watch bands on eBay for $1.99. I think they are great because you don’t lose the watch if you snag it on some brush or a vine and tear out one of the pins (which happens). I also added a wrist compass ($3.99) which makes this Seiko auto-winder ($49.99) set-up just about perfect:
13/11/2014: FIGHTING back against he HALAL evil: http://pickeringpost.com/story/halal-feels-the-pinch/4094 & http://pickeringpost.com/story/how-to-kill-off-the-halal-hoax/4095
12/11/2014: Cornucopia in the making (at least for the local birds):
Macadamia Flowers
Loquats, Figs, Mulberries, Feijoas
12/11/2014: First photos of Rufus and the proud dad, Rusty the Dusky:
12/11/2014: A balanced paper on ‘fracking’ from Stanford Uni’s environmental scientists: NB: The benefits (or otherwise) of fracking have to be compared with those of conventional energy (ie coal/oil) extraction/use: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/13/stanford-publishes-a-report-on-the-balanced-use-of-fracking/
11/11/2014: REMEMBRANCE DAY: Time to remember this is
the day (11 November1975) we rid ourselves of Whitlam: the WORST Government in
11/11/2014: CRAYFISH: Note to self: Do more posts about crays! Our last series of posts about them received 140+ responses!
Safely home in the fridge!
11/11/2014: IMMORTALITY and HAPPINESS: I read the other day that (at Age 65 = ME) having plans reduces your chance of dying by X + 10%, on which reckoning I should live forever: because I will NEVER get all the things done I PLAN to do! Here’s some other good advice: 22 Habits of Unhappy People: Chronic Complaining, Retail Therapy, Binge Drinking, Worrying About the Future, Waiting for the Future, Lack of Hobbies, Eating Poorly, Talking Poorly of Others, Holding Grudges, Stopping Learning, Not Following Through, Hating Your Job, Loneliness (How you Choose to Socialize), Letting Negative Thoughts Enter Your Mind, Jumping to Conclusions, Magnification, Minimization, Self Labelling, Not Having a Goal, Worrying What Others Think, Letting Strangers Affect Your Mood, Wanting More Money, Stuff You Should Read: http://www.infobarrel.com/22_Habits_of_Unhappy_People
11/11/2014: To satisfy the IPCC we would need to eliminate 90% of humanity: http://pjmedia.com/blog/how-to-implement-the-ipcc-program/?singlepage=true
10/11/2014: Two reasons some people don’t like camping: it is wet AND cold, and uncomfortable. This does not have to BE. A properly positioned tarp and a fire will take care of the former: the usual 1m tall hiking tent which you are forced to retreat to in the event of rain will make your trip unpleasant (wet & cold). For many years I have employed a square tarp (2.4 x 2.4 metres is sufficient) pitched diagonally against (eg) a tree with a fire out in front. I have added ‘wings’ to such a tarp to improve the shelter. You will have seen this in some of my previous posts. Scroll back through (http://www.finnsheep.com/Ultralight%20Hiking.htm) to see what I mean. As to the second: you need an inflatable INSULATED pad (a good ultralight pillow will also help) at least 2 ½” thick. I have found the Thermarest womens-neoair-xlite (http://www.cascadedesigns.com/therm-a-rest/mattresses/fast-and-light/womens-neoair-xlite/product) to be superb (R=3.9, 340 grams) but it IS expensive. If you are a bit shorter of cash (AND Stronger) Big Agnes’ pads @ R= 4.1 (eg the petite @ 499 grams) http://www.moontrail.com/bigagnes-insulatedaircorepads-78-mummy.php are quite wonderful! I would couple either with an Exped UL pillow (@ 45 grams ie http://www.moontrail.com/exped-airpillow-ul-m.php ) and a good quality down bag for a delightful night’s sleep in the outdoors.
10/11/2014: Once AGAIN, in praise of capitalism: poverty world-wide has had a DRAMATIC decline over the last 40 years: http://www.aei.org/publication/greatest-achievement-human-history-one-probably-never-heard/#.VFeCIDpyBTI.twitter
10/11/2014: I really think (young) women HAVE thrown away more than they gained; they have thrown away a ‘seat on the bus’ and just the pleasant expectation that they will be treated with a little deference (as if they really WERE special); the reasonable belief that someone will love and care for them (and their children)…in exchange they have ‘equality of opportunity’ where they have to work hard (away and at home) AND raise their own children, for many the prospect of a secure and loving marriage - or any prospect of being viewed other than with a lack of respect as the behaviour of so many (men and) woman invites, IS a forgotten ‘dream’. (The keeping of oaths has been supplanted by ephemeral ‘pleasure’ accompanied by serious long-term detriments). Quite likely poverty and no-one to love and care for them in old age except the State (if we can afford that – unlikely)…feminism is not ALL about ‘betterment’ It is quite likely that these ‘shortfalls’ are part of a more general malaise: ie that people have increasingly lost the ability to defer immediate pleasure in exchange for long-term gains.: http://thefederalist.com/2014/11/03/what-a-1951-photo-tells-us-about-modern-womens-loss-of-power/
09/11/2014:
09/11/2014: Yesterday Islamists plotted to kill OUR Queen, yet ABC did not report it! Two lots of treasonous bastards! Two things urgently need to be done: 1. Abolish/radically reform the ABC; 2. Reverse Moslem immigration!
09/11/2014: Keynes: “Lenin (the founder of the
former communist
08/11/2014: Escaping the heat: The
Rapid just below camp
Spot enjoyed himself
Our old camp on the
View upstream from camp
07/11/2014: Feminism today: ‘In
07/11/2014: Geographically, this map is much the same
(colours reversed: Conservative U.S. = Red) as a similar map of
07/11/2014: The religion of PEACE: they have killed 11 million of their own since WW2, 1.7 million since 2001…how many of US will they kill if we keep inviting them in? http://pickeringpost.com/story/just-look-at-that-jihad-body-count-/4070
06/11/2014: AT LAST, Obama is a dead duck! Now, if only we can only avoid Hilary who is (if anything) even more of a lame duck and economic illiterate!
06/11/2014: So many apocalyptic warnings end like this: remember five years ago when we had only five years to mend our ways: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/one_month_remains/
06/11/2014: Chrissie is SUCH an IDIOT: YOU choose between coal and DEATH: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/coal_equals_life_milne/
05/11/2014: Today we bid Farewell to Gough from those who will never forget. Of course the same folks will never remember, eg THIS: That A$1,000 invested in the ASX in 1970 dollars turned into @ $350 under Gough and did not return to being worth (face value) $1,000 until 1984! As savers and retirees obviously could not possibly live on the dividends from their investments during the FOURTEEN+ YEARS of economic disaster and 10%+ inflation (which Gough created!) all such folks lost their LIFE SAVINGS. Of course many such folks have since died of old age, so who IS there to remember just what economic WRECKERS the Left and the Labor Party ALWAYS are? At one stage we were paying 21% INTEREST on our mortgage: I can remember being overjoyed at being able to FIX it at 14%! I agree that on this ‘Memorial’ day we should NEVER FORGET Gough – AND NEVER REPEAT THE MISTAKE OF VOTING FOR EVIL CLOWNS LIKE HIM AGAIN!
05/11/2014: It would be GREAT if people would consult this website before they ‘shared’: http://www.thatsnonsense.com/blog/the-6-most-common-internet-scams-2014/
05/11/2014: The FUTURE: what WILL it be like? First of all we will (soon) have virtually free, virtually unlimited energy from nuclear fusion with generators sized according to need: ones maybe as big as a railway engine or two to power a fair sized city to ones the size of a shoebox to power a homestead. With such abundant energy we will be able to do and have anything we wish. We will not have to chase rich lodes of ore in inaccessible places to harness the resources we need. Any piece of rock, earth or water will be able to be broken down easily into its component elements to provide whatever resource we need, whenever we need it. Such unlimited energy will make growing food completely independent of seasons, indeed independent of available light, water and nutrients as we will easily be able to provide all these. There will be no shortage of food, and most of the land now used to produce it will be returned to nature. Indeed, we will rework photosynthesis. It is dependent on rubisco, the best that nature has evolved, but we will re-engineer photosynthesis with more efficient processes so that plants will yield many times what they are capable of now. Both these things will happen in YOUR lifetime, possibly within a decade. Poverty and want will completely vanish. And this is only the beginning: we WILL have habitats at the L5 points and on the moon and Mars in the next twenty years. Life expectations will soon soar by 20-50 years! The future will be MUCH better than the past…
05/11/2014: There is a drug you can take (one of the mescalin derivatives I think) which will give ANYONE a ‘religious experience’ – I won’t be taking it though! Conversely, there ought to be a drug (surely soon?) which will reverse (such) delusions, so that folks of a religious bent will be completely cured of their insanity. There will be much contention about whether THAT should be added to the water supply!
04/11/2014: Of COURSE, to be a tad over-weight (or even gloriously so) is a delicious and sensible life-choice: As one watches one’s avoirdupois friends slipping quietly and painlessly away (in a heartbeat, so to speak) at the breakfast table over a large plate of pancakes piled high with butter, cream and jam, and compares that to the suffering of one’s thin, ‘fit’ friends’ suffering horribly (usually in denial) from some nasty, incurable cancer, one naturally reaches for another can of condensed milk, another croissant, another delightful can of beer, another incomparable Lindt chocolate & etc. Who WOULD want to suffer needlessly, when there is SO MUCH life to be enjoyed?
04/11/2014: Some chicks are NUTS: Oh? Yeah: Andrea Dworkin, ‘Woman Hating’: ‘The incest taboo does the worst work of the culture: it teaches us the mechanisms of repressing and internalizing erotic feeling…The destruction of the incest taboo is essential to the development of cooperative human community based on the free-flow of natural androgynous eroticism…The incest taboo can be destroyed only by destroying the nuclear family as the primary institution of the culture. The nuclear family is the school of values in a sexist, sexually repressed society.’ Thinking like this will bring progress?
04/11/2014: It is bizarre that folks can view a glacier ‘calving’ and see this as evidence of global warming when it is the weight of ice above which causes the calving; ie if the glacier was warming, there would be LESS ice ( ie less snow) above, so it would NOT calve…and so on…
03/11/2014: Interesting: http://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2014/11/01/5_science_facts_that_are_plain_wrong_108925.html
03/11/2014: Incredible questions #1: Which Animal Are You In The Bedroom? http://vyped.com/2014/09/which-animal-are-you-in-the-bedroom/?s1=400&utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral
03/11/2014: When
02/11/2014: I guess one of the great pleasures of canoeing is that you so rarely see anyone else canoeing. In 25 years canoeing (various sections) of the Macalister (for example) we ran into other canoeists just once. On that occasion one of them STOLE my spare paddle, which would have left me quite literally ‘up the creek…’ except I had another. I could NOT persuade police to CHARGE this piece of slime (eg with ‘conduct endangering life’), but I did succeed in having him sacked from his job as he was driving a company car with a prominent (Japanese Co) logo (whom when I rang them) they did not want to have associated with such conduct. The further you get away from people, the more civilised it gets (in my experience). I am all FOR bad roads (or NO roads at all!) Mind you this morning I AM feeling for the (fellow) hiker who offered me a lift on Friday when we were canoeing the Macalister. He was heading for a multi-day hike in the Bryce’s Gorge area (I suggested a few interesting side trips he might take and pointed out to him the location of an abandoned hut he might seek shelter in in the event of bad weather. Mind you, whilst I knew the weekend might bring some RAIN, I did not realise then that there would be (lots of) snow down to 1200 metres, so he will be VERY cold this morning, and hopefully he found shelter. You DO have to remember that BLIZZARD conditions can occur at any time of the year (quite unexpectedly) in the Victorian Alps! It PAYS to be prepared which is why I ALWAYS carry a spare paddle – and various other aids to survival…a .308 comes in handy betimes too!
02/11/2014: I had his
(broken) paddle he had left me (with his fingerprints on) placed carefully (by
me) in a waterproof canoe bag. I had also SEEN him from high up on a ridge, and
could have easily shot him with my .308 - if I had suspected he was stealing my
paddle I WOULD have fired a couple of rounds 'across his bows' (as the saying
goes). There were also numerous witnesses (eg camped at Burgoynes) of him
canoeing the river with my paddle. It was quite distinctive - few people those
days canoed a Canadian with a double paddle, and he was the only other party on
the river. What? Do you think police should refuse to charge people because
they believe it is a TRIVIAL offence? I certainly didn't think so (and still
don't). I often canoed that river with small children (as a day trip). He was
not to know that I was not just off for a walk with a couple of small kids
(something I often did) - and what he did would certainly have endangered their
lives, as it is a rugged walk of many hours out of there if you can't canoe the
river...Understand this, I buttonholed him when I arrived at Cheynes Bridge (he
was camped there - and I recognised his canoe). ALL I wanted from him was an
apology and my paddle back. He just refused (and denied) even when I pointed
out to him that I had seen him with it, could have shot him, and would take the
matter up with police. Honestly, some people are too stupid to be allowed to
live! I AM talking about HIM!
02/11/2014: I’d guess these chemical illiterates would ban di-hydrogen monoxide if they could: http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/epa_to_ban_argon_one_of_the_largest_components_of_the_atmosphere/
02/11/2014: So, THIS is Halal…and you’re paying for it with your Vegemite (and practically every other foodstuff you buy! And what is all that Halal money used to pay for? Terrorism against us! This vileness HAS to STOP: http://pickeringpost.com/story/halal-is-much-more-fun/4015 & http://pickeringpost.com/story/kosher-v-halal/4047
02/11/2014: The forgotten Yazidis: http://pickeringpost.com/story/-please-kill-us-/4048
01/11/2014:
Gorge: below Burgoynes
Tiny enjoyed the trip!
In hot pursuit
I said, 'Sit on the bag, Spot or you'll fall in!'
'Spot' the figurehead
They say water finds its own level, but sometimes it does so in unexpected ways...
Below Burgoynes
The tree on the right would make this Grade 3 rapid: Death!
01/11/2014: Tin Canoes: I have been canoeing for a long time now…nearly sixty years: when we were primary school age we used to make tin canoes out of a sheet of corrugated iron, usually tacked to a plank front and stern, tar-sealed, the side edges folded and hammered flat so we didn’t cut ourselves to pieces. Paddles made from a straight tree branch with a couple of pieces of flat plank nailed on. We had to wait till the creek was running a ‘banker’ before we could try it out. It is a wonder really we are still alive (well, most of us). It was a different childhood to the cosseted suburban video-game ‘heaven’ most youngsters ‘endure today. Thank goodness our own children got to spend a lot of their childhood in the forest, on our wild rivers, growing up on a farm & etc.
01/11/2014: This looks like an excellent one person tent: http://www.trekkertent.com/home/home/3-stealth.html
31/10/2014: I recently posted about the BCB Fishing Kit (10.5 grams). The ‘Speedhook/s’ might be a useful addition to (a couple of) these. Pack of six US$20.95. Nothing like a set line overnight to provide for the hungry, lazy hiker that fish breakfast (or maybe platypus?) in paradise: http://www.speedhook.com/servlet/the-1/Speedhook/Detail
31/10/2014: I SUSPECT, (but I might be wrong) that when Moslems INSIST our dogs be BANNED, we MAY just prefer to ban MOSLEMS! Correct me if I’m wrong: http://pickeringpost.com/glance/dogs-and-muslims-a-toxic-mix/4035
31/10/2014: A Time for Choosing: Ronald Reagan in 1964; still relevant today. What a great speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXBswFfh6AY#t=355
30/10/2014: It just gets scarier and scarier: http://conservativetribune.com/bikers-for-kurds/
30/10/2014: One of my (remote) French ancestors (a Sanlaville) won a Legion of Honour in Napoleon’s wars. It is interesting to see these photos of Napoleonic War veterans. Retronaut is AMAZING: http://mashable.com/2014/10/27/napoleonic-wars-veterans/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link
30/10/2014: In the States lots of people are contracting Lyme disease (http://sectionhiker.com/hiking-and-lyme-disease-revised-estimates-from-the-cdc-indicate-us-infection-rate-is-10-times-more-prevalent-than-previously-reported/) from infected ticks when hiking. The disease is not yet here, but we have plenty of ticks/leeches which can be unpleasant. Usually I just tuck the ends of my trousers into my socks, but a gaiter will also help prevent things from falling into the tops of your shoes. Trouble is, most gaiters are far too heavy and increase the energy needed for hiking enormously. There ARE a couple of ultra-light gaiters available however, which weigh less than two ounces per pair such as: http://sectionhiker.com/montbell-stretch-semi-long-spats-in-other-words-gaiters/ & http://www.mountainlaureldesigns.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=37&products_id=114
29/10/2014:
Why ARE people POOR? I think there are a lot of people who would benefit from
this advice (if they were willing to TAKE it!). Every day I see folks around me
making the most spectacularly BAD financial decisions (only later to lament
them as a form of victimhood - eg ‘Why/Poor me?’). The decision to not be poor can
be as simple as deciding to grow/cook your own food (instead of
take-aways/restaurants) or realising you don’t need a new shirt/pair of shoes;
you don’t need to buy a new car, when yours has only done (eg) 150K, ie it is
NEWER than any car I have bought in the last 30 years! You don’t need that
large house; you don’t need someone ELSE to build it; you don’t need that
expensive overseas holiday when you have not even seen 1% of
29/10/2014: Introducing the Peshmergettes: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/claims-famous-kurdish-peshmerga-fighter-rehana-may-have-been-decapitated/story-fni0xs61-1227103268843
29/10/2014: This is about how good ‘renewable energy is: not even hot air: ‘demonstrators…to make their point, had a blow-up coal power plant that was running on a fan powered by wind and solar charged batteries. Before the protest was over, however, the batteries died and their solar panel could not produce enough energy to keep the power plant standing upright: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/17/friday-funny-renewable-energy-fails-protesters-calling-for-more-renewable-energy/
28/10/2014:
GO Mark Steyn: ‘The sub-title of my new book is "Don't Say You Weren't
Warned". I have been writing for over a decade now about the west's
wannabe jihadists, often born and raised in
28/10/2014: Wishing I was there (well, perhaps!): http://neveryetmelted.com/2014/10/17/great-london-beer-flood-of-1814/
28/10/2014: You might find this a bit religious, but it is replete with some excellent advice: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/what-if-having-extraordinary-life-isnt-point
27/10/2014: Mobile Phones: so many things to know…When buying one you really need to check out the frequencies covered, eg it must have 3G = 850 to function on Telstra’s nextG network, which offers superior connectivity in rural areas. Nearly ALL Samsung phones have an external antenna connection point under the back cover (you MAY have to drill, or the antenna/patch lead suppliers may supply a pre-drilled cover, eg http://telcoantennas.com.au/site/samsung-galaxy-s4-patch-lead-and-back-cover-combo ). You also need to really check all the phone features (eg here: http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9190_galaxy_s4_mini-5375.php) BEWARE: most of the dual SIM phones do NOT offer nextG connectivity. Bizarrely, some (quite high-end) phones do not have wi-fi, GPS or a radio & etc. To utilise the excellent Avenza Pdf maps app, you will need a phone above Android @ 4.1 (some are upgradeable) AND a certain amount of (internal) memory. This IS an excellent App for bushwalking, 4WDriving & etc as it allows you to download (eg) Vicmaps & utilise GPS on them. It IS also possible to convert other maps to GPS AND to ‘geo-reference’ maps which aren’t (More about this later). DUAL SIM is useful particularly if you want pre-paid DATA, but don’t want to lug around an additional device (which you have to charge separately). These folk (http://www.magic-sim.com.au/) have an add-on dual Sim gadget which fits most phones (for less than $50) which will allow you to do this (or have two providers eg Telstr a AND Optus). Very few phones fit in your pocket nowadays (ie are less than 5”/125mm long) ; rare exceptions are the Samsung Galaxy Y, Ace, and S4 Mini.
27/10/2014: Greens (& the Left generally) are just NUTS: ‘When is it acceptable for a terrorist to go berserk in a shopping mall and machine gun innocent victims to death? When it's all being done for the noble cause of environmentalism, of course…’ Soon to be compulsory reading in Oz school curricula too no doubt? http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/10/22/Splattergate-II-green-graphic-novel-celebrates-eco-terrorism-shopping-mall-killing-spree
27/10/2014:
THIS says it all, I think: ‘US Spends 30 Times More on Welfare Benefits Per
Person Than Communist
26/10/2014: Surprise news from our Jeeralang
menagerie! Yesterday Steve attached a new flight to the aviary inhabited by our
pair of delightful dusky lorikeets. Today he went
to replace their old, dilapidated nest box with a new model in the hope that
they might breed this season (their first spring outdoors). He took the old
nest-box down and noticed funny noises within (Yes, despite his
deafness!)...and lo and behold: a downy chick! It must be about 2 weeks old
according to my lorikeet book. Who knew! Secretive Rusty and Goldie! Steve
suggested "Rufus" for a name - sounds perfect to me! I have attached
a pic of proud dad, Rusty, (not a recent pic) for those who don't know how
beautiful dusky lorikeets are! The aviary extension was clearly well-timed!
26/10/2014: Touch-feely lefties are just too hard to take: http://patch.com/michigan/royaloak/death-threats-aimed-boy-11-who-bagged-rare-albino-deer Maybe should be read in conjunction with this: http://clashdaily.com/2014/07/hunting-conserves-study-says-deer-hunting-helps-replenish-forests/
26/10/2014: Things to worry about: Solar flares: ‘NOAA forecasters estimate an 85% chance of M-class flares and a 45% chance of X-flares on Oct. 24th.’ Missed, I guess. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/24/massive-x-class-flare-erupts-from-the-sunspot-2192/
26/10/2014: It is important to KNOW THIS: ‘Natural’ gas is NOT (necessarily) a ‘fossil’ fuel (This MAY mean that it is virtually unlimited. NB No ‘fracking’ produced these flames). These flames have been burning for 2500 YEARS: ‘Abiotic methane ordinarily only forms at temperatures much higher than those that occur in the rocks at Yanartaş. However ruthenium, is present in the igneous rocks under the flames, and is believed to act as a catalyst, permitting the formation of methane at the lower temperatures (i.e., below 100 °C) that occur at Yanartaş…These vents represent the biggest emission of abiogenic methane discovered on land so far. The emissions do not have a volcanic origin, since methane is not related to mantle or magma degassing...’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanarta%C5%9F
25/10/2014: Wisdom…There's More to Life Than Being Happy…Meaning comes from the pursuit of more complex things than happiness: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/theres-more-to-life-than-being-happy/266805/?single_page=true
“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”
“Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude.”
“The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his wall calendar, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each passing day. On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calendar and files it neatly and carefully away with its predecessors, after first having jotted down a few diary notes on the back. He can reflect with pride and joy on all the richness set down in these notes, on all the life he has already lived to the fullest. What will it matter to him if he notices that he is growing old? Has he any reason to envy the young people whom he sees, or wax nostalgic over his own lost youth? What reasons has he to envy a young person? For the possibilities that a young person has, the future which is in store for him?
More great quotes here: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2782.Viktor_E_Frankl You can get a free copy here: http://new-free-pdf.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/man-search-for-meaning-by-viktor-frankl.html
25/10/2014: Gough: Sacked three times by the people
and once by the GG: Perhaps his most lasting legacy has been the increase in
the size of government he bequeathed to
25/10/2014: What sort of weird place is
24/10/2014: Spent a couple of nights camped by the
Horseyard Flat,
Della & Spot,
24/10/2014: You may think it odd that the green movement opposes fracking for natural gas but support hot fracture rock geothermal technology, but you see, the first WORKS whilst the latter does NOT – so it’s quite simple really!
24/10/2014: Peter Jackson it ain’t, but it’s sure a lot quicker: http://digg.com/video/the-hobbit-in-lego-in-72-seconds?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email
21/10/2014: Hiking Food: There are quite a few suggestions and recipes here. I admit I hadn’t thought of using bulgur as an alternative to rice, pasta, couscous, etc, but it does have a different taste, so I will try it out. This guy has a ready-made recipe. Not sure whether it would be to my taste or not: http://sectionhiker.com/apricot-lovers-quick-cooking-bulgur-wheat/
21/10/2014: THIS is one of the problems (drone strikes are another; there used to be such things as: warrants, arrests, charges, trials, convictions, punishments…what used to be called – quaintly – ‘the rule of law’)
21/10/2014: An interesting article by ‘There are
no grown-ups. We suspect this when we are younger, but can confirm it only once
we are the ones writing books and attending parent-teacher conferences.
Everyone is winging it, some just do it more confidently…You will miss out on
some near soul mates. This goes for friendships, too. There will be
unforgettable people with whom you have shared an excellent evening or a few
days. Now they live in
20/10/2014: BCB Fishing Kit: I reckon this is about as
it gets for a lightweight hiking hand caster @ 10 grams (inc. line). It has a
handy notch for holding the line from unravelling when not in use. The kits are
available from the
20/10/2014: FUSION: here we come: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/compact-fusion.html
20/10/2014:
Della: ‘Ankle sprain close to mended now. We went for a therapeutic trial walk
along the lovely George Bass Coastal Walk yesterday and completed around 8km
without ankle pain. Might be able to attempt something more uneven next week!
The dogs had a lovely time too, as verified by Tiny's big grin on the sand of
George Bass Coastal Walk
Half
Tiny at
20/10/2014: Great quote: Roger Scruton: ‘Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created. This is especially true of the good things that come to us as collective assets: peace, freedom, law, civility, public spirit, the security of property and family life, in all of which we depend on the cooperation of others while having no means singlehandedly to obtain it. In respect of such things, the work of destruction is quick, easy and exhilarating; the work of creation is slow, laborious and dull. That is one of the lessons of the twentieth century. It is also one reason why conservatives suffer such a disadvantage when it comes to public opinion. Their position is true but boring, that of their opponents exciting but false.’
20/10/2014: Two great Australians: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/across_the_divide/
19/10/2014: You would think Himalayan trekkers would
all carry something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al4UUSAd5yQ
‘Live and learn or you won’t live long’! http://www.lifesystems.co.uk/products/outdoor-survival/4-person-survival-shelter.html
The new breathable ‘Escape Bivy’ (http://www.adventuremedicalkits.com/survival/survive-outdoors-longer-escape-litetm-bivvy-1.html)
@ 157 grams is surely a must in your day pack long with (eg) something like
this to keep your dry and warm (http://www.adventuremedicalkits.com/survival/survive-outdoors-longer-survival-poncho.html)
@ 65 grams. Surely a small price to pay (both in weight asnd dollars) to save
your life.
19/10/2014: Before James Harrison (
19/10/2014: Tim Worstall is quite right here, Limits to Growth’ is total nonsense: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/07/the_club_of_romes_limits_to_growth_was_right_you_know/
18/10/2014: I LIKE this guy…read the whole article; it will make your day, ‘And I neither dismiss nor fail to appreciate the advances of the modern era. They have improved the lives of Americans in immeasurable ways. But what such arguments fail to acknowledge is that I am actually pining for the missing element of those bygone days; that sense of self-reliance and a belief that no matter how bad things get, the individual and the family can persevere and find a way through. That’s what’s missing. Were you able to combine that survival driven spirit with the multitudinous advantages offered by current technology, you might indeed see paradise just over the horizon. But you’ll never arrive at that horizon on the back of technology and government insistence alone’ : http://hotair.com/archives/2014/10/14/the-end-of-the-era-of-personal-responsibility/
18/10/2014: You may not realise just how many peer reviewed studies show that climate sensitivity to CO2 doubling to be well LESS than 1C. The theoretical max was only @ 1.2C anyway! The latest one has it at .43C (and we have already had HALF that doubling, yet the world has been cooling by more than this ie .21Cfor @ 20 years!) Well past time to give up on climate alarmism – and get a LIFE: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/14/yet-another-significicant-paper-finds-low-climate-sensitivity-to-co2-suggesting-there-is-no-global-warming-crisis-at-hand/
18/10/2014: THE LITTLE PRINCE: Unlike Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’, Antoine Saint-Exupéry’s ‘Le Petit Prince’ isn’t usually on reading lists for policymakers and international relations scholars. But it should be. ‘The French aviator’s short book, on the other hand, describes the deep human desire to be social out of love toward others, not from fear of them. For the former, fear of others is the source of social cohesion; for the latter, the source is the need for others. The former would repel others, the latter attract them. In the end, the simple wisdom of the Little Prince may trump the calculating shrewdness of the Prince, or at the very least it complicates and complements it…’ NOW 70 (wasted) years since Antoine’s death: http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/10/06/two-princes/
17/10/2014: WOW! If these guys really have CRACKED it, this discovery will change the world more quickly and more profoundly than anything which has happened in the last 200 years. Just watch Greens get behind it too – I don’t think! http://directorblue.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/a-compact-fusion-reactor-that-could.html#more
17/10/2014: What It’s Like to Carry Your Nobel Prize
through Airport Security: “They’re like, ‘Sir, there’s something in your bag.’
I said, ‘Yes, I think it’s this box.’ They said, ‘What’s in the box?’ I said,
‘a large gold medal,’ as one does. So they opened it up and they said, ‘What’s
it made out of?’ I said, ‘gold.’ And they’re like, ‘Uhhhh. Who gave this to
you?’ ‘The King of
17/10/2014: GREAT questions of our time: Is pepper
aphrodisiacal? Can we bear to be without it? LOVE pepper myself. There was a
time when it was very much more valuable (when the term, ‘peppercorn rent’
meant EXPENSIVE). At the height of this trade you could send out a dozen ships
(to the Indies, aka
16/10/2014: NINETY-one per cent of Daily Telegraph
readers have condemned a social media campaign to drive patriotic shirts out
of Woolworths. Fair point, PETER COSTELLO: ‘What I’ve said is that this is a
country, which is founded on a democracy. According to our Constitution, we
have a secular state. Our laws are made by the Australian Parliament. If those
are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic
state, then
16/10/2014: On January 20, 1961, Robert Frost spoke at John F. Kennedy's inauguration. The snow-glare made it impossible for him to read his new poem for the occasion (he was 87 years old), so he recited a better poem, ‘The Gift Outright’, from memory:
‘The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In
But we were
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak.
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.’
16/10/2014: PUMKINS: For pottage and puddings and custards and pies
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies,
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon." Pilgrim verse, circa 1633 About time to get them in: http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/20798-Pumpkins-are-tasty-food.html
The goal for some Lefties, like medieval ascetics, is to live off only cabbages that have been certified to have died a natural death.
15/10/2014: Always loved Bruegels’ dogs (and
Thurber’s!). An interesting analysis of their breeds: I think the hound in the
right foreground could be taken right out of the painting and used (as a
bloodhound) to hunt sambar deer in
15/10/2014: FRESH asparagus: I have only recently discovered how DELICIOUS this is: tastes something like fresh peas. There ARE many adventures yet for the ‘over-60s’ it seems!
15/10/2014: GREAT quote: Senator Marco Rubio: “the greatest tool to lift children and families from poverty is one that decreases the probability of child poverty by 82 percent. But it isn’t a government spending program. It’s called marriage.” http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/13/whos-poor-in-america-50-years-into-the-war-on-poverty-a-data-portrait/
14/10/2014: Della safety device installed: hopefully the new step to her potting shed will forestall another sprained ankle…PS: might be a good idea to remove the rubble though!
14/10/2014: Tony is SO refreshing after all the nut
jobs banging on about ‘renewables’, ‘clean energy futures’, & etc, ad
nauseum: ‘Coal is vital for the future energy needs of the world. Energy is
critical if the world is to continue to grow and prosper. so let’s have no
demonisation of coal. Coal is good for humanity. Coal is good for prosperity.
Coal is an essential part of our economic future here in
14/10/2014: How ‘renewables’ equals DEATH: Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSugIzPGa5I
13/10/2014: We have many wonderful ‘wilderness areas’
in
Carey 'Road' Mt
13/10/2014: Things to think about? Hyperreality? Oh, Yeah: ‘ The simulacrum is often defined as a copy with no original, or as Gilles Deleuze (1990) describes it, “the simulacrum is an image without resemblance”.[9] Baudrillard argues that a simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes truth in its own right, aka the hyperreal. He created four steps of reproduction: (1) basic reflection of reality, (2) perversion of reality; (3) pretence of reality (where there is no model); and (4) simulacrum, which "bears no relation to any reality whatsoever".[10]’: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperreality
13/10/2014: Of COURSE, climate change CAUSES everything: Isis, volcanoes… http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/10/01/US-professor-blame-climate-change-for-Islamic-State & http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/02/another-story-about-global-warming-causing-volcanoes/
12/10/2014: GENIUS: DIY gun folds and shoots paper airplanes: http://www.gizmag.com/paper-airplane-gun/34213/
12/10/2014: TAMARILLOS: What a great fruit they are, even if short-lived – you MAY need to plant a couple every other year to keep yourself in fresh fruit, but they take up very little space (@ 2 metre circle) and have delicious fresh fruit all through August, September, October – just when there IS a bit of a shortage (apart from citrus) and greenhouse strawberries, etc. We both love them and reckon we could consume the produce of 3-4 trees. We have three now, but will add a couple more when I see them in the nursery. They usually cost under $10 a tree too. Of course you could grow them from seed too I imagine.
12/10/2014: Well SAID: ‘If Islam is a religion of peace, what sort of peace does it bring?... Islam can at times be defeated or stopped, as at Tours or Vienna, but it will always rise again as it is now bent on so doing…Briefly put, Islam, in its founding, is intended to be, literally, the world religion. Nothing else has any standing in comparison. It is to bring the whole world to worship Allah according to the canons of the Qur’an…’ http://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/time-take-islamic-state-seriously
11/10/2014: ANTS are fascinating. Here’s E.O. Wilson: ‘The Trailhead Queen was dead. At first, there was no overt sign that her long life was ending: no fever, no spasms, no farewells. She simply sat on the floor of the royal chamber and died. As in life, her body was prone and immobile, her legs and antennae relaxed. Her stillness alone failed to give warning to her daughters that a catastrophe had occurred for all of them. She lay there, in fact, as though nothing had happened. She had become a perfect statue of herself. While humans and other vertebrates have an internal skeleton surrounded by soft tissue that quickly rots away, ants are encased in an external skeleton; their soft tissues shrivel into dry threads and lumps, but their exoskeletons remain, a knight’s armor fully intact long after the knight is gone. Hence the workers were at first unaware of their mother’s death. Her quietude said nothing, and the odors of her life, still rising from her, signalled, I remain among you. She smelled alive…’ Read on here: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/25/trailhead
11/10/2014: What DO women find Attractive in men? One woman’s view: ‘The traits I find quickly appealing and charming in men are courage, honour, manliness, humour, shyness, but a confident attitude towards life and an easy, relaxed deportment which says that they are comfortable in their skin. They like to play sports and to play with power tools, books, and guns…’ http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/25082-A-Maggies-Farm-Scientific-Poll-for-the-Ladies-What-do-women-find-attractive-in-men.html
11/10/2014: Time to rid ourselves of this halal scam
(as
10/10/2014: Camera Phones: I see Lumia (1020) has now
included a 41 Megapixel camera on its latest phone (compare Samsung Galaxy K
with 20Mp & 10x zoom: http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/mobile-phone/smartphone/smartphone/SM-C1150ZKAXSA
& Samsung-Galaxy-S4-Zoom with 16 Mp & 10x zoom) ). It won’t be long
before the equivalent of 100 Megs is exceeded. The days of the camera ARE
numbered. Likewise most other devices. Samsung Galaxy S5 ‘Active’ is waterproof
to 3’. The Xolo Win Q900s is set to break the 100 gram barrier,
& etc, etc. I need to reappraise my use of such devices. I was turned off
by a 7” Samsung Galaxy Tab I bought which I NOW believe has a number of weird
faults (I HAD thought that there was some incompatibility between me and touch
screens, but I have been playing with Della’s Galaxy Note 1 - and it WORKS).
She tried my Tab and encountered the self-same problems I have with it. When
hiking (for eg) if there IS no service (or wifi) these features can be turned
off. The screen can be set to black and white for ebook reading (to save
power). You can turn the GPS off (and on when you need a fix) and just carry
the phone as a camera in ‘sleep’ mode. I need to see how long the battery will
last in these circumstances. I see I can buy (spare) batteries for her Note (43
grams ea) from eBay for $6ea (delivered!), and an external charger. If one can
scale back power usage when hiking and carry a few spare batteries, (and/or
figure a lightweight way to recharge them) it might be a viable alternative to
a whole host of other devices. You can also now buy waterproof cases for a
song! I am (also) playing with loading some topo maps (and the GPS feature) to
see how this goes. It is hard to find them for
10/10/2014: IS there any GOOD NEWS? Perhaps: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/10/01/arabs-are-slowly-but-surely-integrating-into-israel
10/10/2014: Remember (not so long ago) when we passed
‘peak (oil) production’? NOW, the tables have turned (thanks to fracking).
09/10/2014: What the Arab World Produces: ‘Hatred and violence’. That’s about it, oh, and some oil! http://www.dennisprager.com/arab-world-produces/
09/10/2014: Dangers of the ‘great outdoors’: 
http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/uploads/get-attachment.jpg
09/10/2014: Hard to understand: whilst the SURFACE of the SUN is @ 5700 Kelvin, its corona (outer atmosphere @ 1 million km out) is MILLIONS of degrees Kelvin. When you get THAT conundrum of atmospheric physics sorted out, come back to me about your quaint beliefs about global warming!
08/10/2014: I guess there are many people who have
forgotten (did they ever KNOW) the importance of Malta (to Western
Civilisation) or of the Battle of Lepanto (October 7 1571: STILL the bloodiest
single battle in history!), Charles the Hammer, Afonso de Albuquerque (or
Dracula, for that matter!); but without them Europe would have been WIPED OUT
by Islam CENTURIES ago, just as they ‘raped’ Constantinople (1453),
08/10/2014: A pretty good EPITAPH: ‘Dedicated to the
Memory of G. Inestine B. Roberts aged 88 years who died at the timberline after
her fourteenth ascent of Pikes Peak (
08/10/2014: Hiking Music #2: Sony ICD-UX (eg) 534F digital voice recorder includes an alarm clock @ 58 grams inc one AAA battery + hundreds of hours of music! http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/ICD-UX534F/downloads/soundorganizer15
08/10/2014: Christopher Hitchens was wonderful, ‘There’s no real trick to thinking like an apparatchik: you just keep two sets of ethical books.’ Julia Gillard was BIZARRE, ‘even if you are the single most powerful person in your country, if you are a woman, the images that are shadowed around you are of sex and rape.’ O, SURE!
08/10/2014: Unsurprisingly Ju-liar LIED to the Royal Commission concerning the (un) incorporated AWUWRA. The AWUWRA was incorporated on 24th June 1992. Scroll down to see the document dated 21 May 1992 where she tells Blewitt to FORGE a document on AWUWRA letterhead. Blewitt was writing cheques on the Association’s account on 26 May 1992 which passed through Ms Gillard’s hands. This constitutes being a PARTY to that fraud, and perjury to the RC - whom she told under oath that there WAS no unincorporated Association. She WILL be charged AND go to gaol. At least you would hope such crimes do not go unpunished: http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/09/any-practitioners-care-to-take-a-swing-at-the-law-on-incitement-in-victorias-crimes-act-.html
07/10/2014: The An interesting ‘solution’ to the ‘marriage equality’ ‘problem’: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/10/04/Woman-who-married-herself-admits-friends-found-wedding-a-bit-narcissistic
07/10/2014: The Quince is SUCH a wonderful tree, particularly now when it is in bloom, but also @ Easter time when it is laden with @ one tonne of delicious fruit suitable for a vast gourmanderie of tucker (not just Della’s quince jelly which I have praised before). It can also live hundreds of years with little or no attention. This lass has even written a book entirely in praise of the quince: http://queenofquince.com/accolades/
07/10/2014: Fair point: http://pickeringpost.com/story/if-islamic-countries-can-ban-the-burqa-why-shouldn-t-we-/3909
07/10/2014: Seems to me
06/10/2014: There are many wonderful hiking circuits to
be ‘found’ in the Victorian mountains. Just because the route is not marked on
any map or DSE brochure ought not deter you. Some are quite long and would take
a fortnight or so to complete. Others are shorter. The Wonnangatta, Dry Creek,
Caledonia,
06/10/2014: ‘It’s the sun, stupid!’ STRANGE how there are so many folk who vie to ignore this important advice. Imagine searching for water in the Victorian mountains and concentrating your efforts on the North-West slopes instead of the South-East ones. Anyone who has wandered around in the bush for just a little while (unless they are exceedingly dull) will surely have noticed that the areas which are most shaded are also cooler and moister. The very instant you venture outside your air-conditioned holt, the Sun is obviously what dominates the weather (particularly temperature!). How can folk have failed to NOTICE just how much colder it is at night than in daytime - nearly 20C difference on average? Yet such is the attraction of ‘the butterfly effect’ that folk come to believe that a tiny quantum of exhalation (gas) shakes the world!
06/10/2014: We should be up there with Singapore, (or
at least the UK) but immigration & paying (the wrong) people to breed has
been dragging us down; if you study the list a bit you will see what kind of
immigrants we might want and those we most definitely do NOT want. You could
ignore this advice, as the Romans attempted to ignore the threat of the Goths
(but
05/10/2014: GEAR freaks might enjoy this website I just discovered…I am already thinking about the Nemo Nocturne sleeping bag, and wondering whether I can fit all my gear in a 20 litre bucket (and I am only on Page 2!): http://sectionhiker.com/
05/10/2014: ATHEISM now has a TV channel all its own. Things ARE looking up: http://atheists.org/atheisttv or http://www.youtube.com/user/AtheismTV
05/10/2014: Six Reasons I'm Happier Because I Went to War: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140925023742-84021053-6-reasons-i-m-happier-because-i-went-to-war
04/10/2014: Alas, one of our Mountain Paw Paws (a male) has bitten the dust (and I have had to cut it up and remove it). His ‘lady’ is just about to burst from winter dormancy and has plenty of fruit on board, so I will have to plant some seeds (as you need at least one of each). They are interesting plants giving early lemonade tasting fruit. Apparently they only last about twenty years though:
04/10/2014: More news about the
04/10/2014: Now EIGHTEEN full YEARS with NO global warming: ‘What will the Warming Pause do next? Get a job? Go on a gap year? Maybe go to college and rack up some proper student debt. Who knows, but it’s worth celebrating the good news that the planet’s temperatures are not accelerating to thermageddon.’ http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/01/happy-anniversary-1-october-marks-18-years-without-global-warming-trend/
03/10/2014: Waleed Aly is clearly Australian Islam’s Lord Haw Haw (and he should suffer the same fate!) Unfortunately he has many Fifth Columnist emulators and followers!
03/10/2014: Cable tie tomato cage; (Della in background):
03/10/2014: ‘Shenandoah’ (1965) staring James Stewart, ever one of my favourite actors (a WW2 airman who served in the USAF 27 years! So different from the current crop!) This is one of THE great movies. Set during the Civil War, it may give you an idea of what (constructive) anarchism might be like. The hero (James) pretty much holds Mercutio’s view ‘a plague on both your houses’. He is a Virginian, yet owns no slaves and made and works his land himself (with the aid of a bevy of excellent children – the girls of whom never needed Germaine to ‘liberate’ them!) so that the concept ‘Government’ is pretty much meaningless to him. Download a copy and settle in for a VERY enjoyable night’s viewing. ‘Shenandoah’ also was ever one of my favourite songs – so much so that I was minded to name my first-born thus. She MAY be grateful I did not!
03/10/2014: All The luvvies are out in force this morning shrieking and wailing that Bronwyn Bishop MAY ban face coverings, which is strange when you think that many people wanted faces (indeed whole HEADS) ‘banned’ only a couple of weeks ago without the slightest demur from these concerned folks. Racists amongst us are claiming the ban is ‘racially’ discriminatory (how is this when Islam is something you can JOIN?), and I agree, since clearly the ban is aimed at people in gorilla suits (and REAL gorillas) who (as everyone know as a result of innumerable famous psychological experiments) are well-nigh invisible (an hence clearly a public danger) – as WHAT might they be carrying in that bunch of bananas?
02/10/2014: ‘
02/10/2014: Renovated the strawberry bed; pulled all the plants, added 1 metre of new soil, lime, gypsum, fertiliser, replanted them, mulched with pea straw and added a Bunning’s tent greenhouse to one end to speed some on a bit. These little guys are suddenly looking much happier. Should be heaps of strawbs soon:
02/10/2014: Quote of the week: Catherine Deveny: ‘I regard heterosexual marriage as a much more important feminist issue and bigger oppressor of women than the burka.’ Duh! It seems to me that the further to the Left society is dragged, then it must be dragged even further to the UTTERLY MAD Left.
01/10/2014: FINALLY, the END of communism? Hong Kong
protesters deploy the great weapon that
01/10/2014: Last day of September. First hydroponic strawberry:
01/10/2014: DISABLED OR HANDICAPPED: This gal will never need a pension. Bravo, Jen Bricker: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByFUzo9KwryWWkRwUEw4bmZNaVk/view?pli=1&sle=true
30/09/2014: Ultra Light DOG LEASH (8.5 grams): Mini D carabiner 2.8 grams + 2ml spectra cord www.zpacks.com/accessories/carabiner.shtml Sometimes we have to walk on a ‘road’ aways or keep the dogs from ‘hunting’ some other pesky hiker, particularly in NPs (where the JRs have every right to be - they are Australians TOO, and pay all their taxes on dog food, etc!) Lately, the prevalence of unexpected fox baits makes getting the dogs under control important too, so these lightweight leashes are the answer. I KNOW I could have made them lighter with (black) dyneema, but I have run out of it. Great product: there is even a flat kind, good for shoe laces too perhaps.
30/09/2014: Yay, Tim Blair: YOUR E-Z GUIDE TO TERRORISM AVOIDANCE: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/your_e_z_guide_to_terrorism_avoidance/
30/09/2014: RELATIVISM: Multiculturalism maintains that all cultures are equally valid and that all should be allowed to flourish amongst us (presumably no matter how repugnant they are to the majority of us, to common decency, to the common law & etc). ‘Multiculturalism’ though, is itself a ‘culture’, which has no more ‘validity’ than any other – so why should IT take precedence? I sense an infinite regress in their argument right there. The true fallacy of any ‘relativism’ though is that it is impossible to define anything exclusively ‘in relation to’ something else. There has to be a timeless quality against which such ‘relations’ can be measured, (eg ‘Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the world,’ as Archimedes of Syracuse said in his formulation of the principles of mechanics). ‘O no; it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.’ (Shakespeare Sonnet 116) It is these ‘timeless’ values which ‘civilised’ society has ever been at pains to define eg in the American Declaration of Independence, viz: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’. Similarly, British society has ever striven to define the natures of ‘good’, ‘duty’, justice, etc in the Law and in public morals. If we cast aside the history and contribution of the English speaking peoples, we abandon ourselves to the chaos of relativism, to multiculturalism at our extreme peril…(NB Hosea 8:7: ‘they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind’)
29/09/2014: The IRISH had at least one GREAT thing: William Butler Yeats: WHEN YOU ARE OLD:
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
29/09/2014: SONGBIRD: This old grey thrush has nested in a hole in our house wall for @ 25 years! It is a hole I should have filled in, but it is her home too! I wonder what age these birds live to? She has started early on her first clutch this year; odd years she raises three – one year totalling nine offspring. Birds are very productive. Her efforts over the years have filled our little valley with beautiful bird song. WHAT a treasure:
29/09/2014:
28/09/2014: Finnsheep: You may not know that for over
twenty years we have been the foremost breeders of Finnsheep in
28/09/2014: DISAFFECTED YOUTH: Once ‘defenestration’ (ie window exiting) was more popular, but the flavour of the week is definitely ‘decapitation’ (particularly amid the ‘crescent’ community). Interestingly local Leftist pundits almost universally depict the perps as ‘disaffected youths’ as if this is the sort of thing Holden Caulfield would have done! The world seems to have ‘lost its head’: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/blood-in-beheading-as-islamic-state-initiation/ & http://www.khaama.com/taliban-behead-15-civilians-including-women-children-in-ghazni-6754 & http://news.sky.com/story/1342728/oklahoma-beheading-fired-mans-knife-rampage
28/09/2014: POVERTY: ‘where is thy sting’? http://dailysignal.com/2014/09/15/9-facts-poor-america-live/
27/09/2014: Renovations to Della’s potting shed continue. It was once the original owners’ cream house. She now has shelves and hooks (and the original door back in place). She has been doing a bit of painting (as you can see). The roof renovation will have to wait until the (nearby) soil is firm enough so I won’t fall off the ladder. I also need to build a step (to forestall more sprained ankles!) Spot (as always) enjoys helping:
27/09/2014: Paid to BREED: From ‘Geoff’: ‘A couple of interesting ‘clients’ at the emergency relief centre where my wife volunteers, yesterday. The first was a couple. She was intellectually handicapped to the extent that she was incapable of completing a form which provided basic contact details and Centrelink number. Her ‘partner’ was similarly handicapped to the extent that he was in the charge of a carer. [The local] Hospital has confirmed that she is pregnant with twins. The second was a mother and daughter. The daughter was in her early twenties and the mother was seeking assistance because there were sons 12 and 14 at home and, since it was school holidays, she did not have enough money to feed them. The daughter was in a similar situation with insufficient money to feed the three children she already had—and she was about to give birth to a fourth!’ This is a VAST national problem. Solution: No-one should be entitled to breed on WELFARE. The FIRST child should be adopted out and the mother given (reversible) tubal ligation to prevent further infants. When the mother can afford to have children, she can then be ‘entitled’ to a reversal of the previous operation under Medicare. If she never affords to breed, well, WE cannot afford her or her offspring! ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune’!
27/09/2014: I see Antarctica (& the
26/09/2014: Spent yesterday
traipsing (16km) around the
Old miner's hut with some mementoes left by Arthur Meyers
Spot's hunting equipment
@ 8 x 1.5 m (wrought iron?) boiler
The boiler site included many dry stone walls
Inside the boiler seems good enough to fire up
Matt inspecting the steam release valve
Bryn checking he can fit into the boiler - as you do!
And he can - Spot wonders whether he can come to!
Matt can fit in as well!
The boiler is situated in a beautiful fern gully...
Old miner's hut
26/09/2014: You need to snap up the ‘New’ Sony ebook reader as Sony is soon to cease production. This will mean that you can only buy ‘proprietary’ ebook readers which create some difficulty if you want to load ‘borrowed’ books on them. This is a really great reader (163 grams), and is still available for @$100 new. It will take a 32 gig card. If you want an MP3 player as well you will have to source the older model second-hand (as I did). I will probably buy 2-3 of these (while they last) as I doubt anyone is going to produce a better reader in the future: they have all moved to ‘bought’ using books…
26/09/2014: I really do
need to wash my down sleeping bags. I will have to buy some Nikwax Down Wash
& Proof. I can waterproof the down while I am at it. The cheapest source
seem to be on eBay from the
26/09/2014: WALK! Don’t run. Fortunately this doesn’t happen in Oz, though Tiny and I were ‘hunted’ by packs of wild dogs last time we were in the Wonnangatta!: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/26592220/bear-suspected-of-killing-hiker-in-new-jersey
24/09/2014: GILLARD TOAST: So, now police HAVE Gillard’s appointments book (travel details, bank account?) etc which will prove her responsibility in the WRA fraud: ‘DETECTIVES investigating fraud allegations against Julia Gillard’s ex-boyfriend Bruce Wilson have won access to hundreds of documents seized from her former law firm after the former union boss abruptly settled a year-long legal battle. The development means the investigation led by Victoria Police fraud squad detective Ross Mitchell can now examine fresh material and proceed with interviewing witnesses…The papers are likely to be available to the royal commission investigating trade union governance, which has questioned Mr Wilson and Ms Gillard under oath.’ (Australian) Charges WILL follow…
24/09/2014: Added 1 ½ tonnes of soil and renovated this vegie garden bed for Spring. I think I will put in some plants early (zucchini, squash, corn…) under 3-4 of the Bunnings pop-up greenhouses I have already talked about to get an early start this year. I did this with some tomatoes (as you will have seen) and they are already doing well.
24/09/2014: Just in case you didn’t know quite how the Fifth Column of this the Fifth Crusade actually works, read how their families can be paid $3000 per week without working AND be provided with free halal food, whilst at the same time becoming ever more intent on destroying our society: http://pickeringpost.com/story/the-ugly-face-of-moderate-extremism/3815 & http://moonbattery.com/?p=50426
24/09/2014:
23/09/2014: Kobo Mini: I just bought one of these for hiking. Without the snap-on decorative back it weighs 117 grams, (48 grams less than my Sony) so I will certainly choose it as a dedicated hiking book which I can leave in my pack all the time. The ‘Mini’ has a 4 gig micro SD card inside, but only uses @ 2 of this – though this too can be changed. It is possible to upgrade the storage (say to 32 gigs - worth a try) so that it will fit all your books. The Kobo Mini has wifi and a micro browser so you can surf the Net one tab at a time, check your email, Facebook, shares etc. With the wifi turned off they claim about two months battery life, so PERFECT for the trail. This model is no longer for sale, so I suggest you snap one up off eBay (which is what I did) pretty soon, before they are completely unavailable: http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2013/10/08/how-to-expand-internal-storage-of-kobo-ebook-readers-video/
23/09/2014: An important essay on conservation,
recalling the seminal work of Aldo Leopold for example, ‘Not that indigenous
societies were always harmonious stewards with light footprints. There are many
examples to the contrary, most notably the large-animal extinctions that
followed once stone-age humans arrived in the
23/09/2014:
22/09/2014: Who WANTS to be a struldbrug? I can see this guy’s point: http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/09/why-i-hope-to-die-at-75/379329/
22/09/2014: The new APARTHEID: ‘
22/09/2014: Our ‘greenhouse’ tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, etc are already doing well:
21/09/2014: THIS is simply DREADFUL: our soldiers ‘unable’ to wear their uniforms because of the danger presented by Islamists. This situation must END, and SOON: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australian-defence-force-personnel-advised-to-wear-civvies-due-to-terror-threats-20140920-10jqse.html#ixzz3Dt7ay4uy
21/09/2014: Various folks are posting something like
this, ‘The KKK is to Christianity what Isil is to Islam’. Apart from once again
remarking how weird is the ‘common ground’ the Left seem to see with Islam when
EVERYTHING which is central to Islam is diametrically opposed to everything
which represents Leftist Central, I take greatest exception to the spuriousness
of their ‘parallel argument’: The KKK were NEVER a Christian sect (or even
Christian – as indeed nearly all of their victims/targets WERE!) The other
chasm in the ‘parallel’ is that whilst ‘cults’ (such as ‘The Family’ or ‘The
Children of God’) can properly be viewed as extremist aberrations/’outliers’ of
Christianity, Isil and Sharia generally are CENTRAL to Islam. Nothing taken
from the Sermon on the Mount (the Central Christian text) or in the exemplar of
Christ himself justifies anything like the extremism of Christian ‘cults’, but
BOTH the central teachings of Islam (ie Sharia) AND the life of Mohammed (who
practiced so many of the things WE find SO objectionable - eg child marriage,
execution of Jews and apostates, beheadings, etc) reveal that Isil (and its
likes) are indeed what Islam is ALL about – and why it must be banned; its
immigrants excluded, and every effort made to ‘de-Islamise’ Australia by MASS
DEPORTATION of illegal immigrants and by subsidising legal immigrants (and
their descendents) to return to their countries of origin (or like countries)
whose philosophy better suits their own. If we do not act on this VERY SOON,
our domestic situation will become dire (daily news reports from
Sydney/Melbourne will begin to resemble those from
21/09/2014:
21/09/2014: Photos: most of the paces I have ever been, most of the things I have ever done…there ARE no photos. Even today I cannot use a smart phone; they don’t work for me (don’t know why), AND I find them exceedingly difficult because of my arthritis. Not so long ago using film cameras, each photo cost more than a (2014) $1ea, so we didn’t take so many. Often, if you were somewhere interesting (where a modern digital camera would give you 1,000 beautiful shots for free), the 35mm we could afford would only produce rubbish. I DO have SOME old photos and I am (slowly) working my way through scanning them (but there IS life, too!), and of course, there IS Photoshop, so SOME old snaps WILL emerge. I have spent a lot of my life in some pretty amazing paces (you can only get to on foot, with MUCH difficulty). Fortunately, while I last, there is memory – which usen’t to be something you could buy! Still, stay posted…
20/09/2014: Well said, Joe Hildebrand: (my emphasis) ‘They’re called terrorists for a reason. They don’t have the courage to win in a battle and they don’t have the numbers to win in a democracy. Instead they attack the most innocent and vulnerable: Kidnapping and raping women and girls on an industrial scale, beheading helpless captives for the camera and slaughtering en masse countless other normal everyday people. This is both cruelty and cowardice at a level that is literally inhuman. The creatures who commit such acts, and those who support them, forsake all claims not just to membership of this or any other country but to humanity itself.’ http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/joehildebrand/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/exclusive_why_we_will_always_win_this_war/
20/09/2014: This is a Trail Designs Caldera Cone with
a Toaks 1100ml pot & frypan lid. The ‘cone’ plus two titanium pegs weighs
44grams. A ‘floor’ to prevent leaving a burn mark, if you care - & to
facilitate lighting weighs about 12 grams. The pot (inc. lid) weighs 156 grams.
This cone also fits the Evernew 900ml ultralight deep pot (123 grams inc. lid)
– fine for one. I could not believe how QUICKLY it boiled @500ml of water.
These pots & etc are about as good as it gets (& surprisingly cheap).
You can also use the ‘cone’ as a windscreen if you are using a metho burner
(which
20/09/2014: FREE SPEECH is SO important; our laws against it must be abolished:
“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” - George Washington
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” - Benjamin Franklin
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” - George Orwell
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” - Harry S. Truman
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” - James Madison
“The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.” - Salman Rushdie
19/09/2014: Looks like
19/09/2014: ‘Kill the PM’: That’s one of the monstrous acts these people had in mind (apart from the usual bombings, beheadings etc). They had identified a weakness in Parliament House’s security and planned to storm it and kill our PM and Cabinet. I know that there are those on the Left who would like to see an end to Tony Abbott, but in a civilised society this is done at the ballot box (by a majority of voters), NOT by a few lunatic fringe cult members! http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/terror-raids-red-alert-over-the-plot-to-attack-our-nations-leaders/story-fni0cx12-1227063429358
19/09/2014: Shoelaces: usually come undone because you are tying a Granny Knot instead of reversing the handedness between the first and second knot of a Double Knot! There are many other great ways of tying shoelaces, eg: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm
19/09/2014: BRAVO Larry, an outstanding idea: BAN SHARIA LAW: http://pickeringpost.com/story/mosque-ban-a-pyrrhic-victory/3806 & some reasons why: Sharia is CENTRAL to Islamic belief: if you do not believe these things, you SHOULD be put to death http://pickeringpost.com/story/hello-is-it-the-presbyterian-state-or-the-islamic-state-/3813
‘• Theft is punishable by amputation of the right
hand.
• Criticising or denying any part of the Koran is punished by death.
• Criticising Mohammed is punished by death.
• Criticising or denying Allah, the God of Islam, is punished by death.
• Any Muslim who becomes a non-Muslim (apostate) is punished by death.
• Any non-Muslim who leads a Muslim away from Islam is punished by death.
• Any non-Muslim man who marries a Muslim woman is punished by death.
• A man can marry a girl at the age of 6 and he can have sex with the girl but
may not penetrate her until she is 9 years old. (What a nice birthday present
for a 9 year-old girl.)
• The clitoris of all girls must be cut (per Muhammad's instruction in Book 41,
Kitab Al-Adab, Hadith 5251).
• A woman can have only one husband, but a man can have up to four wives.
• A man can unilaterally divorce his wife but a woman needs her husband's
consent to divorce.
• A man can beat his wife for disobedience.
• Testimonies of four male witnesses are required to prove rape against a
woman.
• A woman who has been raped cannot testify in court against her rapist(s).
• A woman's testimony in court, allowed only in property cases, carries half
the weight of the man's testimony.
• A female heir inherits half of what a male heir inherits.
• A woman cannot drive a car.
• A woman cannot speak alone to a man who is not her husband or relative.
• Meat must come from animals that have been sacrificed to Allah in the manner
of halal.
• Muslims are commanded to engage in deception and lie to non-Muslims to
advance Islam. (Taqiyya)’
19/09/2014: 3D printing: cars, houses, what next? http://reason.com/blog/2014/09/16/3d-printing-now-with-more-jet-engine-par & http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27221199 & http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/ten-houses-in-24-hours-from-chinese-companys-3d-printer-20140504-zr4mm.html & http://mashable.com/2014/09/16/first-3d-printed-car/
18/09/2014: TERRORISM comes home: Huge raids are taking place RIGHT NOW arresting scores of people who were planning beheadings and mass killings in Sydney: http://www.smh.com.au/national/live-antiterrorism-raids-across-sydney-and-brisbane-20140918-3fzkq.html#ixzz3DclzIwuf
18/09/2014: Winter’s harvest: some of our Southern Victorian macadamias, straight off the tree; they sure taste great fresh:
18/09/2014: The love of rugby surpasses the love of women (obviously!): http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/why-travis-mcintosh-and-matt-mccormicks-wedding-angers-gay-groups/story-fni0dpm5-1227055456076
18/09/2014: Well SAID, Andrew Rule: ‘...you don’t have
to be a redneck bigot to be uneasy about border protection that lets so many
“diverse communities” into
17/09/2014: The Father’s Day Suluk 46 TDW titanium double wall wood stove (78 grams) in operation. (Notice how cleanly it burns). WHAT a beauty: http://www.suluk46.com/products%20%20-%20P14%20TDW%20Stove.html
17/09/2014: Crazy Green Defence Policy: These folks are apparently SO supportive of decapitation and other environmentally friendly activities they oppose any involvement in Iraq/Syria, arguing instead that it is our Government’s own response to these terrible evils which is creating a greater danger of a terrorist attack in Australia. I figure it goes like this with them: if wicked Tony tells Mustafa he can’t go to Iraq to chop off people’s heads, Mustafa will be VERY ANGRY and want to take out his height adjusting fetishism on the good folks of Oz – so obviously we should DO nothing, just snuggle up to Mustafa and everything will be just fine! These folk are seriously deluded; so is Mustafa!
17/09/2014: Shorten IS toast: The guy is a clearly rapist thug who really doesn’t deserve to be out of gaol, and certainly doesn’t deserve to have a chance to run this country. He quite clearly DID rape the teenage girl he was arrested earlier this year for violating; police might not be pursuing this case, but that is not because there IS no case. These things are VERY difficult to gain a conviction over. However, he clearly ruined this young woman’s life and should not get the chance to harm anyone else: http://pickeringpost.com/story/-i-was-raped-by-bill-shorten-kathy/3798 & http://pickeringpost.com/story/-i-was-raped-by-bill-shorten-cont-/3803& http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/royal-commission-told-mushroom-pickers-shortchanged-in-union-deal-20140915-10hcas.html
16/09/2014: Hiking Music: I had despaired that everyone had stopped making lightweight mp3 players with speakers, let alone ones which take AAA batteries, but had not considered a digital voice recorder, like this little beauty (http://www.getolympus.com/us/en/ws-802.html) @ 51 grams! They have another model which also has an FM radio. Another maker even has one with an alarm clock feature as well. More research needed. However, I mustn’t take too long deciding, as they will probably stop making these devices as well, thanks to the ubiquitous mobile phone (which is not much use when hiking due to weight, lack of connectivity and recharging issues)!
16/09/2014: Bizarre night on SBS: they had a programme on elephant sex, an interesting fetish, no doubt. They chose as their announcer a woman of surprisingly pachydermic appearance whom one could readily believe had all the practical first-hand knowledge to make her a renowned expert in this field: you know the type of dirigible you see at lunchtimes in shopping centres if you are retired, don’t work or happen to work there. We watched an old Western instead…
16/09/2014: It is really astonishing that both ‘sides’
of British politics are urging Scots to vote, ‘No!’
15/09/2014: Must teach Spot to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewdbilSWjaM
15/09/2014: Labor’s Defence policy: build more submarines here which don’t work so that we will continue to have a one submarine fleet after 2030 (as now), and flood the country with more Moslems. That will make us safe!
15/09/2014: OUR Federal Government: We should
certainly give them a chance; the makeup of the Abbott Government is VERY
different from the coterie of party apparatchiks and trade union hacks which IS
Labor. For example, ‘there are three Rhodes Scholars: Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull,
and Angus Taylor. Two more ministers have degrees from
15/09/2014:Indeed:
14/09/2014: The 1940 movie ‘Northwest Passage’
(Spencer Tracy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032851/
) which we watched a couple of nights ago, is another historic gem which loses
nothing from the fact that the events depicted (
14/09/2014: Swingler’s ‘Portal’ on the
Swingler's 'Portal' 10th August 2009
14/09/2014: Poster love: I REALLY recoil from these awful protestations of (undying) love eg for one’s children/mother/horse/car etc. If you can’t think of anything to SAY (or indeed, DO) yourself, maybe don’t say anything. It all rings so FALSE. I doubt we have EVER told our children we love them (if we had it would have been said in private!): they would have to be much duller than they otherwise appear to be to have failed to notice, that through our every day actions (and words), we have substantiated our love quite satisfactorily - without descending into insincere (often self-contradictory) protestations, or maudlin sentimentality. ENOUGH of the awful posters and their wretched homilies!
13/09/2014: ‘Big Jule’s Performance’: Lots of folks of
a Leftist persuasion have been ‘celebrating’ this, thus revealing (aside
stupendous prejudice) an abysmal ignorance of the case - and due process! Of
course the ‘accused’ in any ‘trial’ can be expected to give a ‘creditable’
performance. After all this is his/her only chance to convince the judge/jury
of their innocence in the face of (in this case particularly) overwhelming
EVIDENCE to the CONTRARY. You MUST have THOUGHT Oscar Pistorius’ performance
was impressive too. The Royal Commission is now investigating (what remains)
the second largest FRAUD in
The first issue is her (forged) witnessed ‘Power of
Attorney’ document (used to purchase a house by
The SECOND crucial testimony (concerning whether she had personally benefited from the fraud) revolves around her BOMBSHELL ‘confession’ that she had paid for every aspect of the renovation by writing cheques against invoices held. If she EVER had such documentary evidence she would NEVER have destroyed it, as she has been under threat of investigation over this matter since BEFORE she was SACKED by Slater & Gordon in 1994! Yet she ‘expects’ the Commission to BELIEVE that she ONCE had this documentation (1995). This revelation was received by the Commission with stunned DISBELIEF (some lawyers present even LAUGHED – as you may have noticed Mr Stojer also do at an earlier implausible point in the proceedings!) She then blithely told the Commission that it was a pity her bank records NO LONGER EXIST as SHE would have presented them in evidence. (Oh, YES!) She had better be right that they do not exist, as they will show the deposit of $5,000 of STOLEN funds into her account as witnessed by Mr Hems! I think it is very likely the Commission ALREADY has these records…And so it goes on. She AND her supporters can (apparently) continue in their ‘fool’s paradise’ that she ‘did nothing wrong’ until such (a) day as she is dragged (justly) kicking and screaming off to the hoosegow!
13/09/2014: The Thomson Dam is nearly full right now.
Only a couple of years ago the river/gully was just a trickle along its bottom
and I was contemplating a once-in-a-lifetime canoe trip along the length of the
empty dam (I only wish I had!) I did hunt/hike it though; the photos I took of
the stream at the bottom of the dam I could easily JUMP over (@150 metres below
the surface today)! It is a large storage.
13/09/2014: Quotable quote: Tim Blair; O so true: ‘On
September 11, 2001, 19 middle-class Islamists financed by a multi-millionaire
murdered nearly 3000 men, women and children in the
12/09/2014: Yesterday we spent 9 hours driving (mainly) and poking about in a (partial) circumnavigation of the Thomson and Jordan Rivers, one of my old hunting grounds. It still takes nearly 3 hours to drive each way (eg) to Mt Victor Spur Track (allegedly the site of a ‘Sweeney Todd’ hostelry during the 1860s) where I used to BEGIN hunting c7:00am, hunt till after dark, spend a few hours having a cook-up/yarning around the fire/waiting for hounds, then drive home. When we lived at Tarwin Lower it was another hour each way, so that often nearly 24 hours had gone by since I woke up. After a short rest I would be up again at 7:00am to go fox hunting all day around the Tarwin Flats. I wonder whether I will ever recover anywhere near THAT level of fitness? There IS a big difference between being 40 and 65!
Victor Spur Track
PS & NB: The firebreaks they have constructed around the Thompson Catchment make excellent private camping areas – plenty of firewood available too!
12/09/2014: At @$22K a lion
is probably outside my price bracket, but there are some interesting critters
(impala, warthogs, etc) which seem like a reasonable bargain @ $400. $35K for
an elephant seems reasonable too, but I may not be affording one any time soon
(unless the stock market picks up substantially anyway!): http://www.africanskyhunting.co.za/pricelist.html
Impala
12/09/2014: Peltiers #2: I am surprised that hybrid cars do not recover electricity from waste exhaust/radiator/engine heat via peltiers/stirling cycle engines etc to recharge the battery and boost overall fuel efficiency.
11/09/2014: ENVY: A friend of mine is in
11/09/2014: I HAD been thinking that it would be
somewhat of a disaster for civilisation if the upcoming Scottish referendum
resulted in the break-up of the United Kingdom (what I had always called just
‘England’ most of my life – soon to be literally true it would seem). I had not
realised that it is
11/09/2014: You could certainly learn a few lessons
from Charlie White, dead at 109, eg ‘he leapt at the chance to learn
anaesthesia at the Mayo Clinic. That was 1944. He later learned that his
specialty had side benefits; Charlie confided to me that he rendered his kids
unconscious for long drives across
10/09/2014: PC gone MAD: http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/08/16-year-old-arrested-for-writing-about-killing-a-dinosaur-for-school-project/
10/09/2014: WHAT an interesting idea. Make your own ‘Hitler reacts to…’ (eg Climate change, Moslem immigrants, creeping feminism, bad weather, etc, etc) here: http://downfall.jfedor.org/
10/09/2014: Another diddums moment! After doing a bit of mayhem and decapitation, these British jihadists want to come home. (No doubt we will have a few like this soon – perhaps better to leave them to their ‘just deserts’? - sic) No wonder the terrorist threat level is likely to be raised to HIGH: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article4197191.ece
09/09/2014: ‘The Big Trail’ (1930). DO download this old movie – one of John Wayne’s first. I guess it is the precursor to (and maybe the model for my favourite western TV series (‘Wagon Train’), but I think the earlier version has a greater verisimilitude: I particularly ‘liked’ the heavy manual work the gals were doing. Lots of early ‘feminist’ wood chopping & etc. Horses AND mules AND bullocks (dogs, cats, chickens, pigs…) Old movies are the BEST movies.
09/09/2014: Some fathers ARE spoiled! Yesterday I received this excellent gift: http://www.suluk46.com/products%20%20-%20P14%20TDW%20Stove.html It will save nearly 3 oz from my pack weight! Yesterday morning I tried boiling the billy on it…and, it is a BEAUTY. I thought NOTHING would surpass the Bushbuddy Ultra (http://bushbuddy.ca/indexs.html) but I was wrong (as usual?) The saving in weight is enough Bacardi 151 to work up quite a glow! This Suluk stove actually burns BETTER than the Bushbuddy AND is easier to ‘feed’. Thanks a million Della! We use these stoves even where (open) fires are prohibited (ie canister stoves only required) as they fulfil all the requirements really, ie the fire is contained; it ‘leaves no trace’ (you can even have it burning on the palm of your hand – so it certainly won’t scorch the ground); it is not in any way injurious to the environment, which can certainly spare a handful of twigs! Of course the (true) beauty of such a cooking system is LIGHTNESS: there is no fuel to carry: this beauty weighs less than the burners of the lightest canister stove (sans canister), so prpbably represents a saving of up to half a kilo (that’s a day’s food!) on a multi-day trip!
09/09/2014: ‘Ju-Liar’ Day folks! A wet day anyway, so why not curl up in front of the TV and enjoy her performance’ before the Royal Commission: it should make an interesting prelude to her appearance before the courts in the not too distant future…And, ‘OH, YES!’. Paul Sheehan: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/two-shades-of-limelight-for-julia-gillard-with-royal-commission-and-memoir-launch-20140907-10dljw.html I’d say this is the first time since she was sacked from S & G she has been questioned by anything other than her tame acolytes (eg at the ABC – of course no mention from them of this upcoming event on the news this morning) well trained in ignoring/obfuscating evidence against her. Today we will see just what sort of creature we had as PM! Have a nice day!
08/09/2014: Return of the (large) predators: Sounds
like the title of a new B-rated movie, I know – but
08/09/2014: Cherry blossom: you might have noticed (in Merrin’s photos over the last few days) that the cherry plums are blossoming all over our little valley. I guess there are a couple of dozen of them. One is right outside our bedroom window, and though the fruit are fairly indifferent (to us) they are not so to the myriad parrots, etc who flock to devour them in early summer. It makes a very pretty display these mornings when you are dressing, combing your (scant) hair, etc. I WAS for removing/replacing it, but Della decided on a ‘good haircut’ (for it!) instead. This morning it is clearly overjoyed with (the result and) Spring!
08/09/2014: Time to have another drink: abstinence is REALLY bad for you, but quite heavy drinking is in fact MUCH better: http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/truth-wont-admit-drinking-healthy-87891/
07/09/2014: Maybe you (figure you) don’t need a walking stick (or two) but when you work out you do, (or that a couple will reduce the effort of hiking by 50%+ and reduce the chances of falls by @100%), maybe you will be ready to try the LT4s. They only weigh @ 119 grams (about HALF a conventional pole) each, yet are strong enough to support MY weight (and that is SOME recommendation!) You can usually use them as the tent poles for one or other lightweight tent too. Two poles can be added together to make quite a tent pole, eg we used the upper section and TWO lower sections (you Have to pop out the little cork circle in the handle to do this) to form a 6’+ centre pole for our Mountain Laurel Designs ‘Supermid’ (sleeps 4!) pyramid tent on our walk across Tasmania. I woud not buy the ones with straps as I would not USE straps. I usually add a loop of very lightweight spectra and a micro cord lock to each pole for those occasions when you want to hang them on your wrist eg to take a photo, or so you don’t drop them when crossing a walkwire. It is better NOT to walk with the string (or a strap) attached to your wrist: that is how Della dislocated her shoulder on the Dusky Track (thus ending our hike – apart from a rather miserable struggle to a relatively nearby spot where a helicopter could land!) As we crossed a giant boulder she slipped, and slid down its face. She would only have sustained (maybe) a couple of bruises to her bottom, but she had the loops around her wrist, and as she slid down, one of the poles caught in a tree root and hanged her by it - thus dislocating her shoulder. Sometimes too it is good to be able to let go of the poles and be able to grab a handhold such as a tree etc: http://gossamergear.com/trekking/trekking/lt4-trekking-poles-all.html
07/09/2014: A brief history of decapitation (with some charming anecdotes): http://pjmedia.com/michaelledeen/2014/09/04/chopping-off-heads/?singlepage=true I see the colourful practice IS spreading, with Brazilian prisoners having a turn at it last week and an Islamic murderer shortening a little old lady in London this week. What a heartbreak old world you ARE!
07/09/2014: Charity: We used to rack up a fair tax deduction in this category once, but the ‘charity’ mobsters have cruelled their pitch as far as I’m concerned. Partly, the BARRAGE of tele-marketers has been a turn off, especially when some of them are just charities we (used to support) continually ‘bothering’ us. Then, there have been the revelations about the (tiny) quantum of donations which actually go to the ‘causes’ they claim to support (rather than to the pockets of the collectors, administrators, etc). One ‘charity’ even employed a ‘collection agency’ to PENALISE us because our ‘donation’ was LATE! THE END, I’m afraid. I have never been much ‘into’ Christianity or guilt-trips anyway. We will be quietly generous towards the folks we WANT to support, and the others can go beg! There is not so much money to waste on ‘good causes’ as there once was, anyway!
06/09/2014: My breakfast this morning is a piece of toast with Della’s quince jelly: a taste of autumn in early Spring. Quinces are great trees living @ 800 years and producing up to a tonne of fruit every year with (practically) NO care at all: drop by @ Easter time and I will give you a quince whose seeds will grow trees true to type, so that you can plant (some) yourselves.
06/09/2014: BBC ‘Under Milk Wood’: Watched this last night. It was surprisingly good, even though we both know this wonderful play be heart!
06/09/2014: ‘There is no statistical difference between the rate of warming over the 27 years from 1917-1944 and the 25 years from 1975/1976 to 2000’:
06/09/2014: And Merrin Again: We must have gotten a bit fitter since yesterday because today we got another fifteen trees planted in record time. That brings our total to sixty trees on the block. Hooray! There'll be more to plant in the future but we have probably earned a little break. Now we just need some spring rain to water them all in. We also spotted a stray chicken in the driveway, couldn't catch it though. Thanks Della and Steve! Today's additions were: 2 English Oaks, 2 Chinese Elms, 2 Japanese Maples (acer palmatum), 3 Silver Birch, Natchez Crepe Myrtle, Forsythia, Washington Navel Orange, Lemonade Lemon, Magnolia Rustica Rubra and Plumcot (plum/apricot).
05/09/2014: Merrin again: We've now planted 45 trees
so far on the block and have another 15 ready to put in tomorrow. I can't wait for
them to take off! Thanks again to Della and Steve for
helping me to get our future garden established. The sheep are going to love the garden we have made for them for the time being!
Also thanks to Matt for being
kind about me going wild with the credit card. As you can see we filled the car
with only just enough room left to fit us in there with all of the trees. Hehe!
Nobody can keep up with the joneses when it comes to planting trees...Today's
additions were:
Manzanilla Olive, Golden Rain Tree, Nettle Tree
(celtis australis), Yunnan Poplar, Ginkgo, Sugar Maple, Moorpark Apricot,
Trevatt Apricot, Corella Pear, Granny Smith Apple, Golden Delicious Apple, Red
Fuji Apple, Paradise Cocktail Pear, Santa Rosa Plum and Williams Pear.
Della:
Beautiful and useful trees, mostly fruit trees with a few deciduous exotics at
this stage. The surrounding hills are full of natives; Merrin and Matt are
improving the landscape, not just adding more of the same. The native wildlife
will no doubt find it a great place to visit, as they do our garden.
Hopefully they
will BECOME indigenous and push aside some of the dreadfully useless, ugly
native rubbish!
05/09/2014: I DO like THIS:
05/09/2014: People are always
dragging out this old chestnut. Don’t I think We (?) should share with 'The
Disadvantaged’, or ‘The Unfortunate’. There are all sorts of words which
conceal an insipient theology. I MIGHT also call such folks ‘improvident’ but
that would reveal just the same assumption ie that it is NOT THEIR FAULT, but
(they) are victims of some sort, as we would all be if we could not bear to
‘get off our arses’. They could not be eg ‘lazy’, ‘spendthrift’, bone idle’,
‘undeserving’…could they? This fellow said to me the other day, ‘Oh, I don’t
mind sharing with such folk…’ I said to him, ‘Look mate, you share your money
with whomever you like, – as we all do (or don’t!). Go right ahead! I would be
interested to see YOUR tax returns showing evidence of your impressive charity
though. Just don’t try to legislate to make me do the same’. Unfortunately such
folk DO want to force us to do so. ‘Stand and deliver’ rings out from every
street corner from these eternal ‘Robin Hoods’, but when they are stealing from
the hard-working 50% to give to the indolent 50%, I rather resent it.
Especially as the recipients have often (over time) received rather more
without any effort on their behalf, for DOING nothing - than I have from my
earnings, but THEY have just frittered it all away…
05/09/2014: When CHESS became a contact sport: ‘Competitor dies in the middle of a match during Chess Olympiad in Norway and another is found dead in hotel room’… http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/aug/15/deaths-world-chess-olympiad-norway
05/09/2014: Beware: the Ice Age IS coming: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2738653/Stunning-satellite-images-summer-ice-cap-thicker-covers-1-7million-square-kilometres-MORE-2-years-ago-despite-Al-Gore-s-prediction-ICE-FREE-now.html
04/09/2014: We have just watched the WORST movie of all time, ‘Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962). This is the cinematic equivalent of Guy N Smith’s blockbuster worst book of all time, ‘The Slime Beast ( a must read). You do not need to be smashed or on any psychedelic drugs to enjoy this film. It is simply AWFUL. I will not spoil anything about the incredibly improbable plot, the awesomely bad acting or the dreadful props by enticing you any further. Just download it, quaff a few magic mushrooms or a gallon or so of red wine (whatever your poison is) and ENJOY! (Ditto ‘The Slime Beast’)
04/09/2014: Pain is such a pointless thing mostly, especially with regard to chronic conditions (sciatica, arthritis…) where one is surely well aware that there is a problem (and nothing to be done). Any God who ‘designed’ such a system was not ‘on the side of the angels’, but rather of the DEMONS!
04/09/2014: ‘Life WILL find a way’: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/08/22/life-found-below-antarctica/
04/09/2014: Merrin: Let there be MORE TREES: Another day, another fifteen trees planted! That brings the total to around thirty on our block. And still more to go...Today's additions were: Magnolias x3 (orchid, ricki and galaxy), Peppercorn Tree, Cape Virgilia, Irish Strawberry Tree, Wattle, Andean Walnut, Pin Oak, Holm Oak, Lipstick Maple, Pink Judas Tree, Feijoa and x2 Bunya Bunya
04/09/2014: Various lefties have been posting that the Govt’s deferral of super increases is somehow a blow to workers, but these ‘increases’ were to come from DECLINING wages, so the Government’s deferral is ensuruing wages increase or remain stable. Those who wish (they should!) can still make a (Tax concessional) deduction TO their super account (if they so wish) OR they can pay off their mortgage – whichever financial strategy best suits their present financial situation: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/superannuation-the-coalition-helps-the-workers-20140902-10bfmg.html#ixzz3CCV9mpAO
03/09/2014: Probably too
late? Rally Against Abbott, 16th November 2014: If this was anywhere
near so, the tax would not be raising a mere $344 million over the forward
estimates (four years!) The mining companies CREATE the resources with their
investment, (which in many cases will take up to ten years to develop) and
which will not pay a profit over the investment costs for twenty years, and can
only be undertaken if there is confidence of a continuation of similar economic
circumstances for eg forty years. This is why so many projects have been
cancelled, mines closed and investment moved to less risky countries such as
03/09/2014: Now, HERE is an
interesting topic: what to do with your savings…have I lost you already? What?
Don’t have any savings? Just hoping someone else comes to the party if that
rainy day does come along, which it will, eventually? Just can’t be bothered?
Much more fun to blow it all and party on? Ourselves, though we never earned
vast piles of money, we saved what we could (mostly in property) and have now
invested in over 150 private companies listed on the ASX. OUR fortunes rise (or
fall) with them. As does whatever income we receive, even though we may be
eligible for the pension – but what sort of person WANTS charity? Why? Because
we believe in capitalism (and self-sufficiency - which means more than our
extensive vegetable garden, orchards etc)! Statists too should put their money
where their mouths are - instead of just waiting for the Government to bail
them out, and provide FOR them - against all wisdom, morality and economic sense?
I cannot see WHY Australians cannot tip a little more of their OWN money into
their super accouts!
03/09/2014: I really don’t mind getting junk email with links like this: http://www.cabelas.com/?WT.tsrc=EML&WT.mc_id=email-nl&eid=26176709&cmp=EP20140804&seg=EPP0ALL&cnt=11065&ctb=LOGO
03/09/2014: While I do not resile from anything I said
about fresh food (above), however I have to admit I WAS confusing ‘rickets’
with other vitamin deficiencies. Rickets (Vitamin D deficiency) is mostly
caused by insufficient SUNSHINE, so we would expect it to be more common for
example amongst dark-skinned people who have moved to high latitudes (such as
the
03/09/2014: How LONG does the ‘pause’ in ‘global warming’ have to continue before ‘alarmists’ admit they were WRONG: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/01/new-paper-on-the-pause-says-it-is-19-years-at-surface-and-16-26-years-at-the-lower-troposphere/
02/09/2014: Further to my recent post about marshmallows: the nanny state gone totally MAD: http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2014/08/29/government-publishes-detailed-instructions-on-how-to-safely-roast-marshmallows/
02/09/2014: ‘Rickets returns as poor families find healthy diets unaffordable’: I just don't think this is true: I went past Centrelink just yesterday: my impression was that practically everyone on 'welfare' SMOKES. Another eg: potatoes are quite inexpensive: much less so than fries or crisps anyway, as is cabbage; and anyway: you can GROW your own vegies pretty much for FREE (though I KNOW that might involve WORK) - something which I have noticed the 'disadvantaged' have an aversion to! You can also raise a few chooks/rabbits in the backyard and/or take up a spot of recreational hunting/fishing… http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/30/child-poverty-link-malnutrition-rickets
Replies to
comments: Well, a spot of fishing/hunting (as well as raising eg chooks/rabbits
in the back yard) can certainly supplement the larder (and is good for the soul
as well). We have certainly been doing all these things all our lives, so that
even though our income might often have been what would be regarded as
'disadvantaged', we have always eaten well- if not too much!
I really think
people could teach themselves that fresh food and vegetables are best, and
surely there are plenty of books, websites etc devoted to gardening, fishing,
etc?
I should think
they could, yes, even if they lived in a HC flat (and gave up smoking). A walk
around a few suburban blocks and along a railway easement would provide quite a
lot of wild food and hanging fruit from other peoples' trees. And there are eg
hares and pigeons to catch in such places - and many othe animals besides. In
the urban rivers/shores there are also many fish to be caught. And this is as
well as the idea that they might buy and cook fresh fruit and vegies instead of
eating rubbish, take-aways and etc. Look, get over this victim nonsense. People
are poor (in our society) because they WILL not lift themselves out of their
situation - and for NO OTHER REASON. The more you 'help' them, the worse they
will become. People need to stand on their own two feet and work hard. Do you
think I have never been poor? I KNOW!
You just want to find victims al la 1950's communist ideology when the reality of C21st is utterly different, here and elsewhere. The issue raised was whether rickets has returned because the poor cannot afford food which would prevent it. As I have pointed out, there is plenty of food available both in the supermarket (and cheaper than what they eat now), in the wild (even in the city), from their own resources (wherever they live) not only to prevent rickets but to provide healthy, wholesome nutrition. PS: you don't need a gun (or Centrelink to issue a gun - WHY this bizarre dependency?) to catch a hare, a pigeon, a rat, a sparrow, a starling (there is an abundance of fresh meat available free even in the city); snares are very inexpensive: as I said before, there is a wealth of info available on how to grow your own food, how to trap or snare animals for food & etc, shoud people want/need to. If people have a poor diet, it is THEIR faullt, not 'the system's'. It is their lifestyle CHOICE - but when I see these 'welfare elephants' everywhere (as YOU do too), smoking and drinking Jim Beam's (or eating Maca’s) at 9:00am, I really doubt your SANITY that you think that someone else is to BLAME for their 'plight'.
There IS no argument against FACTS which is largely
what I have been presenting. I have no (personal) experience of the situation
in
I should also mention that when our kids were little and we were both working two jobs to support them, pay child care, the mortgage, afford to go out to work & etc, a couple or three times a week I used to get a box of 'spoiled' fruit and vegies from the supermarket (FREE!). A little bit of WORK with a knife cutting off the bad bits produced heaps of tasty, wholesome nutrition. We were always hard put to get ENOUGH fruit and vegies for our kids - as they would eat a whole box of nectarines (say) in a day - whenever they got the chance. I am happy to say they got lots of chances.
I object to
your depiction of our utilising 'waste' food which would only have gone to
landfill as a 'handout'. I outlined a number of strategies which the 'poor'
could utilise to improve their diet. I should also have mentioned laying in
preserves, something which is cheap and easy - and which we have also always
done. PS: You will no doubt be pleased to know we no longer choose to be poor;
this is mainly because we SAVED all our lives!
Incidentally, regarding preserves: If you don't own a Vacola unit, you can do this in the microwave using jars and lids you bought things in from the supermarket. Lots of links on how to do this on the Net. Della often does it with jams & condiments.
02/09/2014: Holy Cow! Seagate is now shipping 8tb hard drives: http://www.gizmag.com/seagate-8tb-hdd/33541/
01/09/2014: HAPPY little Vegemites? Take a LOOK at the
jar, folks, right next to the Aussie kangaroo you will see another symbol which
says ‘AFIC’ and Halal Authority’ with some Arabic writing which probably
translates as ‘Support Jihad’! This now appears (at a cost of $30,000 per MONTH
to EACH producer) on just about every food ‘made in
01/09/2014: ‘Pride goeth’…etc: We THINK we are travelling well until confronted by such ‘realities’ as this. Della & I help out at our children’s store weekends to give them a break…a significant number of the customers believe Della is another of my DAUGHTERS! And here I used to kid her (since she was about 40 (that) I should trade HER in on two half her age! Seems the tables have turned. ‘Vanity thy name is man’ as the bard said: I wonder whether I should banish the white beard, but both dyeing (affectation) and shaving (emasculation) would take up some months (collectively) of what little time (seemingly) I have left…
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
01/09/2014: Yesterday I succeeded in getting a new audiogram, so I was able to come home and readjust my hearing aids: WECOME BACK WORLD! My hearing was down another 5dB (the worst point being NOW 80) so it IS only a matter of time before I really will be ignoring everyone! For the moment though, it IS so nice to hear (eg) what Della says…except, I think she is saying I should get off the computer, and DO something useful! PS: For those who came in late, can I recommend Cosco for hearing aids (if you don’t feel able to learn to adjust your own) at @ $2500 per pair, or this guy in the States who will sell you the top of the range Siemens (eg Aquaris waterproof – which I have) for just over $3,000: http://www.thehearingcompany.com/
01/09/2014: I have been reading about the Pacific Crest Trail. Some parts of this must be SO beautiful. Maybe something for your ‘bucket list’ (At least hiking IS cheap and affordable!) http://www.cherylstrayed.com/wild_108676.htm & http://freedirtmonger.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/definitions.html
01/09/2014: Isn't this fascinating: http://www.coyoteblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/mckinsey-global-center-map.0.png
01/09/2014:
01/09/2014: GREAT news for an ‘innocent’ Aussie gal: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/schapelle-corbys-boyfriend-arrested-in-bali-on-drug-charges/story-fni0xqrc-1227041114311
31/08/2014: Beer on the trail? Sounds like me: http://gearjunkie.com/pats-backcountry-beer-review
31/08/2014: Diddums: ‘A former public servant says she suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after attending a workplace respect and diversity workshop four years ago.’ Hopefully she wasn’t injured whilst having sex at work, a trauma which is becoming all too common: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/respect-and-diversity-workshop-left-me-with-ptsd-claims-public-servant-20140828-109djw.html
31/08/2014: Think about how FAR left today’s
‘progressives are’…eg Do you remember that Lenin made Henry Ford a ‘Hero of the
30/08/2014: More garden doings: Potatoes growing in inverted pots tostop them taking over the beds and to make them easy to harvest; Della’s garlic and broad beans are looking really good:
30/08/2014: There certainly ARE too many ‘free lunches’, and Labor (& Palmer) need to get their heads around it & support the Government’s budget measures. For example 15,345 work-fit young Victorians have been on the dole for more than 5 years! And you think NOTHING needs to be done? Having them do a little work should be a real game changer for them. They must learn to stop living out of the pockets of those who DO work! http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/workfit-victorians-on-dole-for-more-than-two-decades/story-fni0fit3-1226933709319 & this: I suppose at least this disability pensioner won’t be a burden to the taxpayers any more, but they might be entitled to know how he afforded all this largesse ON a pension: ‘The part-time punter had been back from a trip to Macedonia for only a day when he dropped into the Jim Dandy Hotel and outlaid $50 on fifty $1 10-number Keno games and then went to play a poker machine.’ http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/pensioner-won-more-than-2m-on-keno-in-local-pub/story-fni0fit3-1227034454264?nk=d3bc9c173da49e1047da36127a5b6899
30/08/2014: I used to be a great fan of ‘The Age’, but since we stopped buying it I have slowly come to the view that the ‘Herald Sun’ lights the fire just as well, if not better; at least both are adequately full of inflammatory articles!
29/08/2014: ENVY: I WISH people would get this straight: the difference between envy and jealousy. People sometimes say things like, ‘I’m totally jealous of where you live’. THIS is envy. You are envious of something someone ELSE has; you are jealous of something YOU have (the usual culprit is your spouse – & why there are so many ‘crimes of passion’, ie you think of them as ‘mine’ – when indeed, they are ever ‘theirs’). With ‘jealousy’ you do not want others to have what you have. With ‘envy’ you wish you had what others have. ‘Covetousness’ is ‘envy’. It (and jealousy) is (rightly) one of the ‘seven deadly sins’ - which unless you conquer (them) you will fail to be ‘saved’. It is also one of the chief ‘desires’ which the Buddha tells us (that) unless we conquer (them) we will never have happiness – and he is quite right. Folks too frequently ‘covet’ one possession after another and spend their life and energy doing so, failing to appreciate (as they do so) the happiness which is (or should be) theirs already. (Most people’s ‘bucket lists’ for example, are ridiculously materialistic and unaffordable. Maybe plant an apple tree or weed that back slope, instead?) My mother used to say ‘You should be happy with what you’ve got’. She ALWAYS was. (Many of us – when young – mistake wisdom for platitudes. Some never learn. Many mistake platitudes for wisdom. Perhaps it IS a fine line?) I can remember my Uncle Basil remarking to me once (about her) that she was entirely without envy, and I think this was so. She would always tell you how her things were better than anything else one might have (as OURS are, so THERE!)…This is a good attitude to have – and now, I must be off to plant some more trees, many of which I grew from seed, but now, I cast them to the world for others to enjoy when I have departed, in the future - as I have enjoyed theirs!
29/08/2014: It is amazing to me how SO many people don’t eat fruit and vegetables (which have ever formed the bulk of our diet (and yet they are All so EASY to grow (thus so CHEAP!). It has an interesting corollary though, IF you buy. The check-out people at the supermarket can never even RECOGNISE what fruit and vegetables ARE: you can always buy persimmons (which I ADORE) as tomatoes, if you buy a kilo of them, for example.
29/08/2014: You won’t even need to book your seats for this show, since the Royal Commission streams free online. It will be instructive to see this DREADFUL woman lying under oath (and subsequently ‘going down’ for her crimes): ‘The hearings will occur over three days from September 9 when the anti-graft probe returns to its investigation of a union slush fund, which was established with legal advice from Ms Gillard to her then boyfriend, allegedly corrupt Australian Workers Union boss Bruce Wilson’. “allegedly? Wow: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/awu-slush-fund-in-spotlight-as-royal-commission-calls-julia-gillard/story-fng5kxvh-1227039326535#
28/08/2014: Garden doings: Greenhouses. One of our $69 Mitre 10 greenhouses is nearly finished being set up with some self-watering pots & etc – tomatoes, capsicums, strawberries and eggplants should come early this year. Also a $25 Bunnings pop-up greenhouse over one of the garden beds (the first of four) with eight ‘Sweetbite’ tomatoes ready to start fruiting @ Melbourne Cup Day: ‘Sumer Is Icumen In’: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2012/06/sumer-is-icumen-in.html
28/08/2014: No doubt many of us worry about this too (ie our investment strategy)…it IS nice to know that a self-managed fund (ie minus those FEES, folks) outperforms mamaged funds. Time to get your money out of that greedy super fund? http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/08/the-debate-about-whether-to-hire-an-active-fund-manager-to-beat-the-market-or-use-a-passive-index-fund-is-over/
28/08/2014: I have been reading this book: ‘Unbroken’ by Laura Hillenbrand. It is an ASTONISHING story. For any one person to have survived one-tenth of what Louis endured would be a miracle, yet I see he lived to be 97! Bravo, Louis! I really recommend this book. Also watch for the film, out on December 25, 2014: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Zamperini
27/08/2014: P.J.O’Rourke: ‘Wealth is, for most people, the only honest and likely path to liberty. With money comes power over the world. Men are freed from drudgery, women from exploitation. Businesses can be started, homes built, communities formed, religions practiced, educations pursued. But leftists aren't very interested in such real and material freedoms. They have a more innocent - not to say toddlerlike - idea of freedom. Leftists want the freedom to put anything into their mouths, to say bad words and to expose their private parts in art museums.’
27/08/2014: Things you might not know about marshmallow: http://inventors.about.com/od/foodrelatedinventions/a/marshmallows.htm
27/08/2014: Simple rules for training dogs and children: ‘YES’ means ‘Yes’; ‘NO’ means ‘No’; ‘Perhaps’ means ‘If you are good, and there is time and money enough’; Pestering means definitely ‘NO!’ There is ALWAYS time for a cuddle.
26/08/2014:
Glaciers are beginning to form on Scotland’s highest peak, Ben Nevis (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-28885119)
, a phenomenon which (I suspect) is more common than we would be led to
believe…this is just the sort of thing we would expect from the beginning of an
ice age. Meanwhile, our BOM (just like America’s has been caught out badly
‘adjusting’ historical temperature data (to ‘create’ global warming: http://jennifermarohasy.com/2014/08/heat-is-on-over-weather-bureau-homogenising-temperature-records/
), a phenomenon which I have been banging on about now for many years, as a
cursory look at some of our oldest temperature records shows… PLEASE take a
look at the (last column) Annual Mean Temperatures for Cape Otway Lighthouse
Vic here. Scrolling down you will surely notice that for the LONG period
c1860-1900 the figure is Always 18C-19C+, but for the period c 1914-2011 it is
always 16C-17C+. This is a COOLING of 2C in a pretty remote area of
26/08/2014: You don’t see this quality of news so much nowadays: ‘It all began, as these things so often do, with a drink. One drink, which led to another, then more besides. Each one, generously given by a genial customer. Each one eagerly slurped by the monkey chained to the bar’: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-28888684
26/08/2014: It certainly IS
a manly art…curiously when I was a lad I learned an entirely different method
which I will demonstrate for you one day (I wonder whether my arthritic fingers
will still work that trick): http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/07/27/how-to-whistle-with-your-fingers-video/
25/08/2014: Well DONE Kipling. A good smoke IS better than a good woman! Almost makes me want to take up smoking again: http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/15278-Saturday-Verse-A-good-Cigar-is-a-smoke...with-Maggie.html
25/08/2014: THIS (likely) is the face of the evil coward who cruelly murdered James Foley: http://www.news.com.au/world/london-hiphop-artist-abdelmajed-abdel-bary-key-suspect-in-hunt-for-killer-of-american-journalist-james-foley/story-fndir2ev-1227034541900 Her is one of his earlier ‘performances’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MARkfLEtpY For his next performance, I would like to see him DANCE at the end of a rope!
25/08/2014: I’m sure this is true for
24/08/2014: What a GREAT gift for a (literate & venturesome) small(ish) child (in us all!) THIS would make: http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Weapons-Mass-Destruction-Implements/dp/1556529538/ref=pd_rhf_ee_s_qp_13_NJ59?ie=UTF8&refRID=0BTEFV31KDDHHR178VK7#reader_1556529538 ot THIS: http://www.amazon.com/The-Practical-Pyromaniac-One-Candlepower-Incendiary/dp/1569767106/ref=pd_rhf_ee_s_cp_10_4EJJ?ie=UTF8&refRID=0BTEFV31KDDHHR178VK7
24/08/2014: Not everything is rosy in
24/08/2014: Fortunately,
despite huge Government interference before (and after) Port Arthur,
Australia's hunters still represent a larger 'army' than our official army, and
as demonstrated in two World Wars & etc, can be relied on to bolster its
numbers with well-qualified soldiers if/when the need ever arises: http://shariaunveiled.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/a-tribute-to-the-worlds-largest-army-americas-hunters/
24/08/2014: Some interesting stuff here. I DO like AMK’s new $25 pad. I will get some of these. Good for the daypack (or an emergency night in the bush) as is their Escape Bivy. Maybe carry a piece of cuben tape in case repairs are needed. Another great emergency idea is the Blizzard Bag: (http://www.blizzardsurvival.com/product.php/100/blizzard-survival-bag) which would go really well with this new mat. The combined weight of the two items would be: Pad 185 grams + Blizzard 385 grams = 570 grams which is pretty good for an emergency and comfie night in the bush: http://southwestultralight.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/outdoor-retailer-summer-market-2014.html You could add my kitchen idea @ 97 grams (from 16/08/2014) and be able to cook a meal as well: Total: 667 grams!
24/08/2014: Back in 1941 Ford could REALLY cut it: (The B-24 ‘Liberator’ heavy bomber – built in 55 minutes!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKlt6rNciTo#t=131 Interesting fact: more than half of US bomber casualties/deaths were other than in combat eg crashes etc. Maybe Ford didn’t build them so well after all!
24/08/2014: It IS very difficult for police to successfully prosecute a rape which took place nearly 30 years ago. This does NOT mean that it did not take place. I’m sure the woman who made the complaint did not do so lightly; nor do the police suggest she did – else they would have charged her with a serious offence committed NOW, ie making a FALSE STATEMENT - and Shorten would have sued her for defamation! What POLICE say is that it would be very hard to achieve a conviction. It is very easy to believe that such a union thug and bully boy as Shorten is behaved like this. He should resign. Labor does not need to be FURTHER tarnished by the likes of him. (For a case to proceed there must be 1: a more than 95 % chance of a conviction, 2: it must be economically viable to get that conviction and 3: it must be in the best interest of public safety. If ANY of these criteria are not met then the case doesn't go ahead).
23/08/2014: The murder of James Foley was indeed
terrible. Watch the video at the link at the end of the article if you can bear
to see a brave decent human being having his throat sawed through by a monster
with a blunt 6” knife! I can scarcely imagine what threats were made to him to
persuade him to speak all the falsehoods ISIS wanted him to say a minute before
he was ‘executed’, or perhaps he at least wanted the video of his death out
there (instead of his being invisibly butchered) so we can all SEE what awful
evil these folks ARE. Hopefully his death will have at least these TWO effects:
First, it will put some backbone into the West’s urgent need to utterly destroy
ISIS; Second, it will persuade Australians that something really needs to be
done URGENTLY about the growing Moslem minority amongst us (BEFORE it is too
late). Somewhere between 50-120,000 illegal Moslem immigrants arrived under
Rudd/Gillard, and too many of them are out there now, waiting their chance! The
proportion of Moslems in
23/08/2014: Lamellar Vest: You have probably seen me out and about in this great vest (I have two, which has to be the minimum number!) I would prefer green, as you can imagine but it only comes in black and two versions of camo. Still a great windproof, waterproof vest with wonderful pockets. You should get one (or two!) http://www.lamellar.com.au/mantle-layer/xplorer-vest/
23/08/2014: Quotable quote: George Orwell: ‘The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow won’t do.’
22/08/2014:
Drummer Rainforest
An illicit Spot enjoying Point Hicks
Drummer Rainforest
Little Cormorants Wingan Inlet
Fly Point, Wingan Inlet
Seals, The Skerries, Wingan Inlet
Combienbar Rainforest
Combienbar
22/08/2014: Human beings are astonishingly long-lasting: I have carefully calculated this: the average human being owns approximately the same number dogs and cats as fridges & microwaves in a lifetime!
22/08/2014: Climb Mt Everest (without the risk): http://everestavalanchetragedy.com/mt-everest-journey.html I made it (easily): see how YOU go! PS: When you see where Mallory’s body lies (with a broken leg at the bottom of the ‘Hillary Step’) it is 50:50 likely that he IS lying on his camera with proof that HE was the first man to the top!
18/08/2014: Now that is a neat idea: http://briangreen.net/2011/07/diy-single-use-antibiotic-packs.html
Tiny containers made from a drinking straw sealed with a cigarette lighter.
18/08/2014: The Internet Archive: Don’t know if you’ve seen this site but it is amazing. Just about everything ever posted on the internet is here in a searchable form. Also available is eg an amazing collection of video inc. TV and movies which are all ex-copyright and free to download (with eg Utorrent – DO download IT). I have been downloading ‘The Adventures of William Tell’ (c1958). Don’t know whether you remember that. Here is another wonderful example, ‘Things to Come’ (1936): https://archive.org/details/things_to_come_ipod PS: Many similar movies etc are also available to watch on You Tube.
18/08/2014: This is a profoundly important article…here alone is something to think about; but PLEASE, read the whole thing: ‘The Danish government has not been completely idle in addressing the problems of an unassimilated and crime-prone minority. Without fanfare it introduced two basic policies: individual repatriation and reduction in child support. The repatriation policy targets unintegrated immigrants and pays them 1,000 euros, a one-way ticket to their homelands, free medicine for a year and extra money if they intend to start a business. This expense is reckoned to be cheaper than paying the 300,000-plus euros a non-Western immigrant is estimated to cost the state over his lifetime. The policy is administered through local municipalities and sees hundreds returning every year to their countries of origin. The second policy, limiting child support to no more than two children per family — the average of all Danish families — was introduced to discourage both immigration and welfare dependency.’ https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2014/08/denmark-bruising-multiculturalism/
17/08/2014: Last summer we planted another 100 or so new grevillias etc on the back slope behind the house. As I comb my hair & etc by the bedroom window I see they are bursting into bloom everywhere (some have already grown 2 feet!) as is the native hibiscus – a purple delight (perhaps it belies my age that I now admire mauve!). I really never thought to say anything good about native veg; perhaps age mellows me…All this free blossom has lured a ‘green army’ of freeloaders (as free stuff will): wattle birds and honey-eaters are likely to demolish all these baby plants: where DO all these critters come from?
17/08/2014: At last, THE SWALLOWS ARE BACK scything
the air into long swift arcs as they herd the mayflies and mozzies into their
sharp beaks: there is nothing quite like a (mud-brick) verandah they opine
anywhere between here and
17/08/2014: OVER 260 TERORIST attacks perpetrated by ISLAMISTS in the last MONTH alone. (Pretty much ZERO for everyone else!) And you STILL think there isn’t a probem? Add this: @ 20 Federal Labor seats are likely to be won (by them) at the next election) on the basis of their pandering to the Islamic vote alone. Figure THIS out: a vote for LABOR is a vote for ISLAM! Even Tony is caving in with his abandonment of 18C. (PS: congrats to senator Bob Day who plans to bring it back to the vote as a Private member’s Bill! Bob is also advocating curtailing Moslem immigration: Result: Family First will get my No #1 preference at the next election!) http://pickeringpost.com/story/dear-mr-marles/3653
16/08/2014: The Arabic letter ‘n’ (or ‘nunn’) has been
BRANDED on Christians (signifying ‘Nazarene’) prior to their execution by
16/08/2014: 29 GRAM multi-fuel stove: it doesn’t get any better than this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1080275728/critter-cr2-multifuel-backpacking-camp-stove Well, it DOES I bent three of these 1 gram titanium tent pegs (http://www.amazon.com/Terra-Nova-Titanium-Skewers-Pack/dp/B007POB8IC) carefully like this to make a cradle for this 450ml Vargo (insulated lip) cup (http://www.amazon.com/Terra-Nova-Titanium-Skewers-Pack/dp/B007POB8IC) @68 grams. All you need to add is a mini-Bic (11 grams) and a spork (eg http://www.traildesigns.com/accessories/ulv-titanium-spork @ 11 grams) & a cuben fibre bag (eg from zpacks @ 4 grams) to complete your cook set @ 97 grams!
16/08/2014: While renovating the shed wall (to add insulation for the back wall of the greenhouses) I uncovered THIS treasure. Had to quickly find a new home for him. I suspect there are many more live underneath the ‘corrie’ on the house roof. I used to delight in hearing them at dusk but that part of my hearing has long since gone South. Small children are now just as much an auditory mystery to me. I CAN still hear the other extreme frequency: the sub-sonic roar of the power station chimneys. On the ‘to do’ list: build ‘nest’ boxes atop all strainer posts for eg possums, parrots, bats, etc:
(Prob) Lesser Long-Eared Bat
15/08/2014: What IS the fuss
about this petrol excise tax? 1 cent per litre is MUCH less than the 'normal'
weekly variation in price, so it's hard to imagine how anyone would NOTICE it anyway
- especially as it would add (annually) @$15 to yout taxes. We will need to
agree to many more such savings if we are to find the $50 billion or so we NEED
to save each year - if we are to stave off national bankruptcy!
Replies to
posts: I would have to see how you figure this! We have nearly $600 billion of
deficit in the forward estimates, so $150 billionpa to pay it off in four
years. So you are looking for something which has a turnover 100 times that. I
would be VERY surprised if there was anything like that in
One of two
things would happen: either the market turnover/profit percentage is too low
and you would not raise the required money or the market would collapse because
of the impost. BOTH might happen. In either case you have to justify taxing
someone else's income to pay for reckless spending by a quite different group
of people.
Surely though the 'Futures Market' like CFDs is just a 'nil sum' game, where 'winners' almost exactly balance out 'losers' over time - with the only profit being stockbrokers charging a percentage on each trade. So there would be NO overall profit TO tax. Even if you taxed the stockbrokers for their service fee, this would not amount to much. Also, CORRECTION: such markets are not wholly speculative. Much of the activity is about ironing out the uncertainties of supply and demand, and in people who actually own the shares or Resources 'hedging' against possible losses to their holdings caused by price movements. Without such markets the real prices of things would almost certainly fluctuate much more, which would cause quite widespread distress actually.
15/08/2014: The world’s oldest (authenticated) eel has
died in
Fire killed giant eel Macalister R autumn 2006
15/08/2014: Certainly in (fundamentalist) Islam ‘Inshallah’ follows every statement about future plans:ie ‘if God wills it to occur’. This is so similar to the Leftist (Marxist) ‘historical determinism’ that it is unsurprising both are united in ‘victimhood’ politics, and are unwilling to embrace the self-deterministic and enterprising attitude which would lift people out of dependency AND make the world a better and safer place.
15/08/2014: I just do not ‘get’ anti-Semitism. Jews
are (if anyone is) the hardest working, most law abiding, best educated, most
pro-prosperity, most CIVILISED group in our society. They are wonderfully
OVER-represented in the professions (think particularly medicine) and have
(world-wide) won more Nobel prizes than ANY other group. In
14/08/2014: BIG CATS: It is enchanting to realise that
there are probably more tigers and lions living in apartments in
14/08/2014: IBM has made a new computer chip which works like a human brain (Error: The human brain WORKS?)…Perhaps the chip should be quietly put out of its misery NOW, before anything else can go wrong? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2720004/IBM-develops-computer-chip-one-million-neurons-functions-like-human-brain.html
14/08/2014: Constitutional Reform #2: The destruction of private property rights by the High Court (as evidenced by the Tobacco Plain Packaging Decision – as mentioned in a previous post) which has certainly kyboshed any challenge from the tens of thousands of farmers who have had their property stolen by ‘environmental’ legislation certainly requires an urgent redress. How this worked: eg under various (usually state) acts of Parliament, landowners were forbidden to clear, lop (& sometimes graze) ‘native’ vegetation (eg under ten years’ old) on what had previously been ‘freehold’ land. Previously freehold land granted ownership of everything on, under or over it (to a certain depth and height) basically to do with as the owner lists. These Acts forbade such ‘interference’ and provided enormous penalties and restitutions (300%!) in such cases. No compensation was payable by Government for this confiscation of private property (right/use) A parallel case: supposing Government decide to rezone or alter the ‘use’ of the land on which YOUR house stands perhaps to build a road, school or refugee centre. Suppose that they did not ACQUIRE the land but simply changed its use (forbidding eg the existence of your house). Suppose further that such an Act contained no compensation. Would YOU support that? That is exactly what has happened to tens of thousands of Australian farmers. They have been deprived of billions of dollars of their property without a cent of compensation, indeed accompanied by a huge threat of punishment if they refuse! Clearly this situation is untenable. No-one’s private property is safe. We need a Referendum to ‘beef up’ the private property provisions in the constitution to ensure that if Government needs to acquire private property it HAS to pay a just recompense.
13/08/2014: My 45:70 Marlin. MANY years ago I managed to break the stock on this wonderful rifle and have been unable to acquire a new one (even though it has been on my ‘present list’ for close on 20 years). To my surprise my wonderful family managed to source one for my birthday yesterday. I’m not sure whether I am now too old for this rifle. It IS a blunderbuss (and quite heavy), but we shall see. At least Matt and/or Bryn may enjoy the use of it. Originally this was the round which wiped out the American bison. It was then (as now) .45 calibre (ie 45/100ths of an inch) and was loaded with 70 grains of black powder. NOW you can load (a modern version of the rifle) up with over 80 grains of modern chemical propellent and 500 grains (that’s half an ounce) of copper-jacketed lead. It comes out of the barrel at over 3,000 feet per second and is still going nearly as fast as a ‘baby’ .308 @ 100 yards, but with immensely more kinetic energy. When the projectile mushrooms out, you would have to see the damage to believe it: it is awesome. Small game (wallaby size) just disintegrates! Something the size of a man will have a hole you can push your whole arm through. Anything hit in the chest will be very suddenly, very dead. It is an excellent big game (eg sambar deer) rifle. During the war against the Huk in the Phillipines c1905 American marines brought it back into service as they found (surprisingly) the full metal jacket 30:06 just didn’t have the stopping power for these crazed folks who were completely hyped up on some bizarre concoction of drugs, their gonads tightly wrapped with wet greenhide so they wouldn’t feel any other pain & etc. Allegedly you could shoot them through the heart with a 30:06 solid round and they would still run a 100 yards and chop off your head with a scimitar (you can probably guess at their religion!) The old 45:70 knocked them over backwards and they just didn’t have the ‘heart’ (literally - or much else) to get up again and keep going. I can’t imagine that the current puny .223 round would stop such folks! Perhaps I will stock up on 45:70 ammo!
13/08/2014: Yesterday Catholic Online posted this horrific content (surely THIS is as mainstream a warning as you need?) WARNING : graphic images of decapitated ‘Christian’ children! NB: How can ANY three year old HAVE a religion? This is just the most dreadful barbarism – and at least some of it being carried out by ‘Australians’: http://www.catholic.org/news/international/middle_east/story.php?id=56481
13/08/2014: I did not know you COULD grow sweet
potatoes in
12/08/2014: Empty Drums: My beloved son, Bryn gifted me some empty 200 litre drums for my birthday. What an exciting gift, so fraught with possibilities! I may be dithering with what to do with them for ages. My ‘next’ empty drum project involves empty 20 litre black or blue drums (which don’t degrade in sunlight, ever). The kind with a 2” cap. I am going to acquire 100 or so of these (probably from a cleaning company) and cut them in half vertically (they make great shed tidiers just like that), but there is more…I am going to ‘tile’ them along the back slope behind our house in such a way as to make a STREAM (maybe with several forks, including waterfalls) which will cascade from one to the other via the half spouts remaining (I hope you can picture that). A small pond pump and some poly will return the water from the bottom one to the top one. Once they are ‘disguised’ with mulch (see previous post: ‘Della’s New Toy’) and planted out with shrubs, ferns etc they will make an excellent refuge for birds, lizards, frogs, mozzies & etc - & hopefully ‘beautify’ the back garden. Pictures to follow, MUCH later!
12/08/2014: DEATHS and entrances: It is interesting that in a contest between an eagle and a fox over the carcass of a dead ewe on the hill, the fox wins quickly. Eats his fill, then lies down in the sun to survey the farm. A very cheeky soldier bird comes along to suicidally menace him. She was a fine old ewe (3331), mother of many lambs, who died (of old age) a couple of days ago, which is what our sheep get to do nowadays (since we are retired shepherds) and one day we will too…The eagle waits in a roadside tree for the fox to continue home to bed, so it can complete its interrupted breakfast…
12/08/2014: It is hardly surprising that the number of Moslems in Australia increased by MORE than 50% under Rudd/Gillard when they let in these ADDITIONAL 120,000 illegals by air (on top of the 50,000+ who came by sea): http://pickeringpost.com/story/gillard-rudd-let-120-000-illegals-fly-in/3640 It WILL all end in tears: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/a_100_war_against_islam_then_surely_our_immigration_program_must_change/
11/08/2014: I KNOW most of us wear pull-on boots (perhaps because we can’t tie our laces), but there have been some advances in shoe laces, eg Aramid Shoe Laces http://www.moontrail.com/accessrs/a-misc/aramid_laces.html and Dyneema: https://www.rhinolaces.com/ And, if you need help tying them: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/tying.htm
11/08/2014: WE have a PROBLEM. Perhaps we should have backed Assad (earlier)…but what are we going to do with these ‘Australians’? Five (?) year old boys who are encouraged to play with severed heads are going to be hard to fit back into a peaceful Australian suburbia (Warning; Maybe don’t click on the link): http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/thats-my-boy-sharrouf-kids-witness-wars-horror/story-e6frg8yo-1227019872823 Former head of the Army, Peter Leahy warns we will have this problem for 100 years right here in Australia. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/well-fight-radical-islam-for-100-years-says-exarmy-head-peter-leahy/story-e6frg8yo-1227018630297# Poor Fellow My Country!
11/08/2014: Della’s new toy: Let there be MULCH:
10/08/2014: 65! Thanks to all for your kind birthday wishes. It sure happens quickly! I remember when we were at school we used to speculate about what the world would be like in 2000, when we would be the unimaginable old age of 50! Flying cars, holidays on the moon, space habitats, colonies on Mars…the world would be a VERY different place. Mostly though, it isn’t. Sure, we have a host of ‘clever’ gadgets, but when did we not? Just different gadgets really. Way back c1900 they had electric cars which could do nearly 100mph. They haven’t really taken off! ALL my great-grandparents lived to be around 85 back then, about the average age of death now. Boy, if I thought the last 65 years went pretty quickly, the looming LAST 20 will surely skip by! I have a personal conundrum. Now I qualify (perhaps) for the Age Pension. Loth as I am to steal from my friends and neighbours (which is what doing so represents to me), I wonder whether (since my kids will be paying the taxes anyway) I should take it and bank it FOR them, so they get some of their taxes back? Someone I know also just ‘benefited’ by qualifying for an expensive drug (on the pension c$6,000/dose) which was unavailable for folks on private health! Unimaginable. You would really think it would be the other way around! Mostly though we have enough to live on, and are still spry enough to do a bit of gardening, hiking, white water canoeing (not today though!) & etc. I think I will resume my weekly bush trips as I have grown inclined to leave too many gaps between them, but the jobs around the place really CAN wait. Must also postpone the caravan trips a little less. I have promised Della a week’s hiking on the South Coast Track, Fiordland late Nov-early Dec. Must also have a week’s canoeing with the dogs on the Wonnangatta (Humphrey Confluence to Angusvale) when the weather warms up before Xmas. Lots to do yet...
10/08/2014: Must Buy moments:
Had one of those yesterday when I saw these excellent (6'6x6'6x4') greenhouses
at the local Mitre 10 for $69ea, so I bought TWO. I figure I can fit @ 32 x 15l
water-well type pots in them all plumbed together with spaghetti tubing, &
that I can sit them on sheets of polystyrene insulation and apply bottom heat
to them via @ 10-20 watt/metre reptile heating cable to keep the root zone @15-20C with a thermostat. During a winter's day
here it rarely gets below 11C (today!) so the air temperature should always be
above 16C and usually above 20C, so that we should be able to have cherry
tomatoes and strawberries year round and peppers, chillies, baby watermelons,
cucumbers etc for at least an additional three months (with no weeding). I'll
let you know how it works out.
Greenhouse complex development
09/08/2014: Mt Useful: Spot’s Second Snow Trip. Still plenty of snow for you snow bunnies to enjoy. Mt Useful is about 1450m, so there ought to be good fun @ Baw Baw etc. Much of the snowgum forest there (and elsewhere) has been dreadfully ruined by bushfire. Large areas have not regenerated. All areas contain huge quantities of dead timber which is beginning to fall which will create a worse fire next time which will certainly kill the snow gums. I wonder whether this succession is what created the ‘High Plains’ in the past, which are definitely not above the tree line really. In any case routine fuel reduction fires would have prevented this destruction.
Thousands of hectares of fire killed snow gums
Snow bunnies: tower track: Mt Useful
Alas, so many snow gums are NOT coming back.
A more elegantly shod Cindie had left her shoe: cold tootsies!
Frozen tarn
Lots of timber down everywhere
Our forests look beautiful in the snow
Ditto
09/08/2014: What a really cool way of inflating your air pad! Hope Thermarest get onto this (PS: Watch the vid): http://www.gizmag.com/windcatcher-air-pad/27582/
09/08/2014: Want unemployment lower than 6.4%? Maybe lower the immigration level, which @ 240,000 is putting too much strain on that, housing, tolerance… http://www.theage.com.au/comment/lax-immigration-policy-hurting-australian-job-seekers-20140807-1019tr.html
09/08/2014: If we MUST choose between the Devil & the deep blue sea, I guess we should choose the Shia: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/must-see-video-yazidi-female-lawmaker-collapses-in-parliament-begging-for-help-from-isis-genocide/
08/08/2014: Here’s the
lightest carbon fibre Canadian I could find: http://www.canoekayak.com/canoe/hornbeck-blackjack-review/
08/08/2014: Jewish
emigration from ‘European’ countries (eg France) to Israel has hit a post-WW2
high as anti-semitism has flared to levels we have not seen since the Nazi
period, with Jewish shops, synagogues & homes attacked and (occasionally)
Jews murdered. (This is coming to a town near YOU, soon). It has been fuelled
mostly by unacceptably high levels of Moslem immigration and its associated
failed assimilation policies, AND has been (shamefully) widely supported by the
Left - and particularly the Greens. We have seen anti-semitism raising its ugly
head on our Australian streets in recent times (again for the first time since
WW2) with protests outside Max Bremer (Jewish) chocolate shops, Moslem
‘protesters’ openly displaying banners promoting ‘death to Israel/Jews’ etc,
and their various hate mullahs openly advocating the utter annihilation of Jews
everywhere - without a single one attracting such prosecution as Andrew Bolt
(wrongfully) suffered for simply noting that 90% ‘white’ aborigines were
(racially) mis-identifying. (As if to identify racially was ever acceptable
behaviour anywhere, anytime!) A different set of laws and standards of behaviour
seems to be allowed for Moslems. This simply HAS to stop. There is absolutely
NO place for anti-semitism in our society. Some simply awful examples: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/how_the_left_and_mass_immigration_are_making_jews_unsafe_in_our_country/
07/08/2014: Congratulations: The first private toll road in 100 years: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/08/but-but-who-will-build-the-roads-without-government-uk-guy-built-one-in-10-days-so-drivers-can-bypass-14-mile-detour/
07/08/2014: Sandals are
well named (if not well-spelled). They certainly DO fill up with sand and grit
so that you have to stop frequently to empty them out (a more arduous task for
me these days because of my arthritis) but they ARE much cooler for walking in
hot weather. My personal choice are these Keen Newport H2s. (Della seems happy
with her couple of pairs too): http://www.keenfootwear.com/us/en/product/shoes/men/waterfront/newport%20h2
I have weighed the Newports (422g) and the Arroyo
2 (411g) each (in
07/08/2014: The decision to give up on Section 18c (though it would likely have failed in the Senate anyway) is a bad one. We OUGHT to have free speech even if it might ‘offend’ some ‘ethnic’ (or otherwise) groups whom we might just be a lot better getting on without anyway! YOU fill in the spaces! http://pickeringpost.com/story/-18c-a-leadership-decison-abbott/3632
07/08/2014: Midwinter Fruits: Even here in Southern Vic you can enjoy a variety of seasonal fruits/nuts still even in the coldest weather (which no doubt belies the cost to transport unseasonal fresh produce to us). Here are some examples from our garden today. Of course some things have just finished (medlars, pomegranates) and some are swelling already: eg berry fruit inc. mulberries, loquats, etc) At all times of the year we can have a bewildering variety of fresh fruit straight from our own gardens:
Pepino: ripen on windowsill
Coastal guava: have been eating ripe ones for over a month
Rhubarb
Tamarillos
Avocado
Citrus: many kinds; oranges shown
Lilypily
Macadamia
Mountain Pawpaw: ripen on window sill
06/08/2014: This guy has
some interesting Peltiers (and circuits). It seems to me that with them one
ought to be able to construct a USB (or just a AA) battery charger warmed by
one’s fire, and cooled by a Platypus bottle (which you every so often refill
with fresh, cooler water) instead of a fan (the ‘normal’ set-up – and much
heavier and more elaborate). You could simply attach the Peltier to the bottle
with a couple of rubber bands. As I almost always have a fire when camping out,
(even in those tiresome, trendy ‘National Parks’ where such wickedness is
verboten), this should enable me to recharge electrical devices (with minimal
weight) when out in the bush. PS I always in addition, just for the insouciant
wickedness of it camp anywhere else than in the ‘designated camping areas’: http://www.customthermoelectric.com/powergen.html?gclid=CLTl4JPpxrMCFchbpQodszYAow
06/08/2014: Deafness: one thing
you can say in favour of it is that it presents a whole range of new poetic
experiences. Dozens of examples present themselves every day, but just now I
heard Della say, ‘My drawer is open again’, when she said ‘My jaw is aching
again’. It often gets much more hilarious than that without being quite so
painful! If many more people were deaf (as clearly the current generation of
pop song writers are) we would end up with vast swathes of literature and music
which was incomprehensible to those of ‘normal’ hearing, just as most of what
‘normal’ people say is incomprehensible to me (even when I have my hearing aids
in actually)!
06/08/2014: It is a strange sentence, ‘Everyone has
the RIGHT to…’ fill in the blanks as you wish, eg free medical care, free old
age pensions, free dental care, free housing, free child care, free transport,
free food…all of this without any work needing to be done, without any
contribution from ‘the good self’! It is SUCH a wonderful idea. SO Utopian.
Listen up, RIGHTS are a NONSENSE: at best a pathetic attempt at highway
robbery. The only RIGHTS you are ever likely to get are those you pay for with
your own blood, sweat and tears. It has always been thus, and SHOULD always be
thus. Those who expect others to provide should be left holding their beggar’s
bowl on the street corner till they drop! A belief in ‘free stuff’ is utterly
infantile: ultimately someone MUST pay, not necessarily those who SHOULD pay
(eg those who RECEIVE). Similarly, no society can afford any infinity of free
things. Any such redistributive principle bangs up against the iron law of
necessity, ie there IS ever only a finite amount of stuff, so you just CAN”T eg
spend infinite sums on any individual’s maybe really horrid health problem
before the kitty is wholly empty and all must suffer.
06/08/2014: Quite: http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/uploads/Half-Way-590-LI.jpg
05/08/2014: This HORROR in
05/08/2014: BEWARE! THIS is
NOT for the faint of heart! THIS is how vile Islamists ARE (including SOME
‘Australians’). If you have a very strong stomach watch the videos, (Warning:
executions, beheadings) but at least STOP denying there is a problem: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/there_is_no_root_cause_to_talk_about_with_animals_like_these/
05/08/2014:
05/08/2014: This 18 year warming halt is clearly caused by ‘climate change’. What else? https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/clip_image002_thumb.png?w=604&h=330
05/08/2014: Well, imagine
that, credit card nos: they are not just a string of random numbers: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-numbers-credit-card-really-160743550.html
04/08/2014:
Magpie Geese Hastie's Swamp
Babinda Boulders
ScrubTurkey: Boulders
Curtain Fig
Obligatory Daintree R Croc
Curlews
Cassowaries: Don't expect to see either, visit a zoo
Green Is Buff-banded Rail
Study: Cathedral Fig Root
Cathedral Fig
Moho Creek Crater: A lovely short walk
Two Gems:
Mt Hypipamee Crater
Hastie's Swamp
04/08/2014: As long as you
don’t find jewellery a tad effete, you MIGHT say, choose this eg for your
wedding ring, (if you are a gear junkie anyway)…Will multi-tools get any
smaller than this? Danger swallowing warning! (I should probably recommend that
THIS ring is not to be used for any other ‘playful’ purposes – the risk of self
harm is just too great). You CAN imagine though, it might get you out of some
tight spots, say if you are captured by terrorists, or find your arm stuck
between two rocks & etc: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/115928701/the-man-ring-titanium-utility-ring
04/08/2014: What a lot of
rot THIS is. Shameful that it was headlined on news.com. The ‘argument’ is that
because (OR, let’s say, ‘If’) .0064% of species vanished in the last 600 years
(mainly on islands being colonised by foxes, rats, cats, people etc for the
very first time) that doom is just around the corner. On continents (other than
Australia, which counts as an island for this particular phenomenon) in that
time only about half a dozen species have vanished (IF they are indeed gone for
good – the ‘Aurochs’, previously an extinction icon, for example is well on the
way to return – and may soon find its way onto the menu of classy restaurants
such as tree-huggers frequent). Given that this ‘decline’ paralleled the
Industrial revolution and the greatest population explosion (of humans) in
history, it is no surprise there was some (very minor) collateral damage. What
is happening NOW though, is that wilderness area worldwide (and particularly in
developed countries) is INCREASING, and that rare or endangered (even extinct)
creatures are being re-introduced or are on the increase. It is all GOOD news
really, not this eschatological crap! http://www.perthnow.com.au/technology/earth-is-in-the-early-stages-of-a-sixth-mass-extinction-says-the-journal-science/story-fnjww8p0-1227005464142?nk=d20ace337f888e4427617dd66a824e1f
04/08/2014: It IS
terrifying how jihadists ‘love’ death. YOU might not think of it as a winning
strategy! But THEY do. Of course most of us in the West ARE somewhat delicate
and trepidacious, and tend to eschew death. In such a case a disproportionate
response IS necessary. Just as we killed over 500,000 Japanese CIVILIANS in eg
03/08/2014: We have had a
solitary wagtail in the garden now for at least four years. There ARE other
wagtails about which mate and raise young, but not this guy. Is s/he gay? Does
s/he suffer from the avian equivalent of misanthropy? Is s/he just completely
unco in his dealings with his kind (as some people are), or does s/he suffer
from the flycatcher version of shocking halitosis? There are SO many mysteries
all about us…
03/08/2014: Our society is
awash with crooks on a MASSIVE scale (see eg these three examples: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/07/30/Shock-US-Senate-Minority-Report
& http://pickeringpost.com/story/reserve-bank-officials-in-deep-crap/3605
& http://pickeringpost.com/story/sleeping-with-the-enemy/3606
& etc ) Democracy may not survive this! Incidentally, here are the names of
the folks whose names have been quashed by the suppression order (in case you
were wondering eg why
03/08/2014: I have been
re-reading Jack London. Such a wonderful writer. What a tragedy he was taken so
early (41) with kidney stones. ‘Call of
the Wild’ has got to be just about the best animal story ever written, though I
still love ‘Tarka the Otter’!
02/08/2014: Remember those
157 illegal Tamils etc whom Morrison (O, so CRUELLY!) imprisoned on a boat for
a month and…Well, they’re gone. All refused
02/08/2014: SURELY time for
same-pronunciation marriage: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/07/31/the-homophone-menace/
02/08/2014: The REAL cost
of going solar: these are US calculations, but first you would have to cover an
area of @ 250,000 square miles with solar panels (this is 2 ½
02/08/2014: A German woman
has been killed by a herd of cows and calves. I blame ‘global warming’: http://www.thelocal.de/20140729/cows-kill-german-dog-walker-in-austria
01/08/2014: Snow in the Jeeralangs last night: Spot's first snow-trip! (The white bits are not comets, as I first thought, but snow flakes!) This is at the gateway to our old farm, Dobbins Hill:
01/08/2014: If YOU have
also noticed that our stock market fell like a stone at opening this morning,
you might care to think about : ‘Why?’
01/08/2014: Unless I’m wrong
wasn’t LIGHT the first creation in Genesis? So, it IS most surprising to me
that astronomers have found that there is about five times more of it than
there ought to be (adding up all the light sources). Similarly there is only
about one fifth of the visible mass out there that gravity informs us exists.
The universe remains a dazzlingly mysterious place: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329782.700-strange-dark-stuff-is-making-the-universe-too-bright.html#.U9mqwGO-KGg
01/08/2014: And does it
ever get any weirder than this: there are MANY bacteria whose diet is pure
electricity, which simply ‘eat’ and ‘excrete’ the stuff. Someone will soon
figure a way to get these little guys to do useful work: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25894-meet-the-electric-life-forms-that-live-on-pure-energy.html#.U9mrrWO-KGg
01/08/2014: Critters so
often seem to be smarter than WE are. There was a simply terrible wind blowing
yesterday (from the NW). Going round the lambs in the morning on our steep NW
facing slope in many paces you were like to take off. Other spots which LOOK
identical were completely still and @10C warmer – which is where the sheep
chose to lamb. I have noticed this before on the dreadfully exposed flats we
had at Yinnar and Kyabram where a shockingly cold, wet westerly wind swept all
before it. The sheep/goats would nonetheless find that invisible spot amid the
maelstrom which was dead calm to bed down. Of course they live outdoors in all
weathers so it’s no surprise really they KNOW the best spots. When you are out
in the wild looking for a good place to camp, take off your coat so you can
FEEL the wind and warm, and seek out just that calmer, warmer, drier spot where
your tent won’t blow away in the hurricane.
31/07/2014: So, Ian
Turnbull of Moree has been charged with MURDER for shooting dead an
‘Environment Officer’. REALLY? They should have rewarded him, given him a medal
or something. Such vermin as he eliminated are multiplying worse than cane
toads. Ian was no doubt defending his private property from compulsory
acquisition without compensation by a vile Government functionary. We have been
in exactly the same situation (and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars!) I
can totally understand Ian taking the law into his own hands, but the law
should rightfully be WITH the property owner! Now that the High Court has
repudiated private property rights we thought were guaranteed by our
constitution (The Tobacco Plain Packaging Decision), what other recourse did he
have? In ‘normal’ circumstances we would all act in concert in defence of our
property rights (say in the event of an invasion) and it would be perfectly
proper (indeed a patriotic DUTY) to kill the enemy who sought to take them
away. What is different about this case? Surely what is true for the many, is
true for the one?
Some replies
to posts: We were persecuted for @ 7 years by just such a bastard employed by
Latrobe Shire who did not fail to stoop to using perjurious Stat Decs and
Photoshopped and other faked documentation to drive us off our land. As I said
before it cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars. And just such terrorists
are doing this every day to farmers across
Stealing
people's private property (even at the Government's behest) is NOT simply 'people
doing their jobs'. The constitution provides for 'just compensation' for
property compulsorily acquired by the state, but this provision has been
junked, and people are losing their use of thousands of acres of their own
(freehold) land with NO compensation. The 'officials' who carry out such theft
are no better than thugs and vermin.
And, just WHEN
are you going to replace OUR land, and all the other farmers' land which is
being stolen by Governments in
He is 79 years
old. He obviously believed he was losing his farm (and losing his fight to keep
it, anyway). It is a terrible tragedy that he (and the dead man) were both put
in this dreadful position. You have to understand that the dead man was acting
under orders from an evil government. That does not excuse his conduct (as the
If a few more
people stood up for their private property rights and forced the Government to
overturn the High Court's decision on this issue Ian would not be defending his
property with a gun OR be being charged with murder. Nonetheless, the
Government official who was (perhaps obeying) the Government's orders to steal
his land (or exceeding his authority and using every illegal means to do so -
as in our own experience) had a moral duty to refuse the order. As he continued
to carry out an illegal order, he was putting himself in just the position he
ended up in - and serves him right! The only reason we were unable to take our
case to the High Court is that we would have risked costs of over $2 million -
which would have much more than bankrupted us. Every other landowner facing
just the same greenie oligarchy is similarly prevented from doing so. As we can
now see, the High Court has been so stacked with communists by the Labor Party
that it no longer upholds the constitution - meaning that the individual NOW
has no defence against the evils of Government BUT to take the law into their
own hands. What person would not take the law into their own hands in defence
of their private property? Those who seek to take it from you are just the worst
kind of thieves (especially if they have the law to back them up) and deserve
no better than summary execution!
And clearly
the High Court judges who voted to junk the constitution’s provision ensuring
private property right ARE communist. What else are you if you think that it is
right for Government to take people’s private property without paying for it?
31/07/2014: I wonder: Does
this also happen in YOUR house? 
31/07/2014: THE WAR ON
TERRIER: SERIOUSLY, what kind of person TAKES OFFENCE at a SCOTTISH TERRIER?
Well, you guessed it: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/07/28/Commonwealth-Games-Scottie-Dogs-Disrespectful-to-Muslims
30/07/2014: What a great
little tool/hairclip for your beloved! S/he might have to be a tad careful
using it AS a hairclip, but it might come in handy in any other James Bond type
situations s/he might encounter. WARNING: this site has SO many other ‘must
haves’, it just makes your mouth water: http://www.animicausa.com/shop/Gifts-for-Him/Leatherdos-Mini-tools-clip/tpflypage.tpl.html
30/07/2014: The Institute
for
30/07/2014: The Honourable
(sic) Daniel Andrews is a LIAR (and a bad one at that!), & therefore
completely unfit to lead this great state. There is NO WAY that he isn’t
complicit in the theft of the dictaphone and the airing of its (damaging)
recordings, well those which are damaging to Ted and Dennis anyway....What IS
it about Labor that they keep showcasing these liars and crooks – and what is
WRONG with Labor voters that is just doesn’t seem to matter to them whether
their leaders are the lowest moral types in our society? ‘Can I use your Dictaphone?
No you can use your own just like everyone else!’
29/07/2014: I think I will
try one of these. I KNOW it’s only 80 grams lighter than my Bushbuddy, but you
have to score something for birthdays and Xmas, surely? Anyway, that’s nearly 3
oz of Bacardi 151, enough for a fair buzz around the campfire one night at
least: http://www.suluk46.com/products%20%20-%20P14%20TDW%20Stove.html
29/07/2014: At the beach with PJ O’Rourke: ‘One hears
a high percentage of Americans are morbidly obese. “Morbidly obese” is such a
tactful way to put it. If Captain Ahab ran aground here he’d shrug off Moby
Dick as barely fit for catch-and-release on a dry fly. Queequeg and Ishmael
could wade ashore and, without the bother of whaleboat or “
29/07/2014: THIS is not the
sort of news the ‘warmists’ want you to hear: http://sunshinehours.wordpress.com/2014/07/24/noaa-28504-low-max-records-set-in-last-365-days/
28/07/2014: I have just
discovered this section on eBay (Home & Gardening> Gardening> Plants,
Seeds & Bulbs) where you can (eg) buy Moreton Bay Fig seedlings for $4.00
ea. Now YOU might not have enough room for a few more of these beauties, but WE
do! We are working quietly away at converting our remaining @ 25 acres into a
sort of (agro) forest of interesting and beautiful trees. There will even be
SOME natives (though NO wattles or gums - as we consider them noxious weeds).
We have a couple of dozen Bunyas (the seeds came from Palmgrove Crematorium
(where we said farewell to Della’s parents), we already have one Moreton Bay @
30’ high and will add more, as well as some Port Jackson figs, Kurrajongs,
bottle trees (brachychitons), lillypillies, macadamias, etc. Mostly though our
trees come from all over: a mix of beautiful (eg holm oaks), edible, useful
etc. Yesterday we visited ‘Botanic Arc’ nursery at Warragul and came away with
about three dozen trees which will just about complete our restoration of the
old ‘dog yards’ at the back of the house (with an additional @ 100 trees).
There we saw some interesting ‘warm climate’ trees happily growing (which we
would not have suspected) so we will be adding some Queensland Kauris, some
Cinnamon Trees, Black Bean, & etc. It would be well worth a visit (if only
for the owners wonderfully eccentric repartee!) Beautiful day today for planting…
28/07/2014: Just when you
thought you were satisfactorily dead, they invent a way to bring you back to
life: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140704-i-bring-the-dead-back-to-life
28/07/2014: Hamas: SUCH a
charming lot, are to give 250,000 grenades to CHILDREN to throw at Israelis: http://directorblue.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/lets-give-em-state-hamas-announces-it.html
27/07/2014: Absolutely the
best kids’ toy in a long while: http://www.gizmag.com/bunch-o-balloons-water-bombs/33099/
27/07/2014: This will just
have to do until someone builds an even better billy cart: http://www.gizmag.com/razor-crazy-cart-uk/33112/
27/07/2014: Great QUOTE: Thomas
Jefferson: ‘Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but
illegal for the citizenry.’
26/07/2014: Just bought a
great new pair of wet weather pull-on boots, Otway Ranger Lo Soft (Toe) @ $75
from Scotts, Traralgon. I have just been around the lambs on the (steep) hill
and can report that they have excellent grip on wet, clayey grass and are
totally waterproof in 2” deep puddles. These are a (very comfortable) rubber
boot with neoprene lining (for winter insulation). Recommended so far: http://www.otwayfootwear.com.au/mens_boots.html
26/07/2014: If you are
wanting to plant some nice trees, you might check out these people (100 English
oaks fro $149 is wonderful value!): http://www.plantinspirations.com.au/plants.php?c=trees
26/07/2014: Clearly these
guys were just the type of immigrant we wanted: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2705008/Australian-jihadist-poses-decapitated-heads-sickening-pictures-posted-online.html#ixzz38W6a8KQd
25/07/2014: It is sometimes
difficult to find some GOOD news, but the market HAS risen pleasantly the last
week, though mining stocks (which went into a death spiral at the end of last
May due to Gillard’s new taxes) are still lagging dreadfully with most such
shares still being a fraction of their pre-Rudd values. You could HOPE that
some of these shares will rise: eg Boart Longyear (which WAS down over 90% in a
year last week) WILL rally (as it has during the last week (going up 100%, then
falling back again yesterday). I think the mining tax simply HAS to go, but
without making progress on removing vast trammels of red/black/green tape AND
workplace reform, and abolishing the ‘entitlement culture’ I’m afraid the
country MAY be unsalvageable…
25/07/2014: It is just
OBSCENE that ABC and SBS source so much of their news feed from Al Jazeera who
are NOTHING BUT a front for extreme jihadist Islamic fundamentalists ie
supporters of Hamas, Hezbollah, Moslem Brotherhood, ISIS, Al Qaeda & etc.
Who would ever have believed that communication in our ‘free’ country would
come DOWN to this? The very best that could be done with these two broadcasters
would be to ABOLISH them; probably preferable would be to ostracise and deport
most of them!
25/07/2014: Just TOO BAD if
you happen to be a Christian in the Middle East: http://blog.gmfus.org/2014/07/22/cataclysmic-purge-in-the-middle-east-the-price-of-inaction/
and particularly if you are a woman: http://www.smh.com.au/world/fears-islamic-state-militants-ordering-female-genital-mutilation-in-iraq-20140725-zwn9s.html#ixzz38QNUBn4R
24/07/2014: DUST! I know it
gathers in OUR house. We have always blamed it on living in a mud brick house
(never our lassitude as cleaners!) Still, who would have believed that it
accumulates at 4” a century and WILL bury us all one day? Some days it feels a
bit like that day might be quite imminent around here, (especially in winter
when the JRs bring in SO much mud). THEN we get ‘Alexander’ (our domestic
robot) humming. He may reverse entropy yet! http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/07/22/science-of-dust-picasso/
24/07/2014: THIS is how it works: “Time and again, over the years, UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) has been abused by gunmen from different terrorist factions who are using UN facilities to stockpile weapons, to fire rockets from, to steal UNRWA humanitarian equipment and to cause damage and fire in UNRWA’s hangars,” a senior Foreign Ministry official told The Times of Israel. Is it any wonder there are civilian casualties when Israel tries to destroy these rockets which rain down on Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel alike every day (in defiance of any ‘cease fire negotiated). Hamas’ ‘human shield’ policy is obscene and barbaric: http://www.timesofisrael.com/for-second-time-rockets-found-at-un-school-in-gaza/
24/07/2014: I imagine THIS
will befall me too; the Left claims to believe in freedom, but such posturing
is only a ragged veneer pasted over ultimate totalitarianism. All those
‘gentle’ beliefs they post about (cf ‘organic’, GMO, orang-utans, Barrier
Reefs, crystals, female ‘equality’, ‘renewables’, helping ‘The Poor’, etc ,
& ad nauseum) would soon disappear if they ever got the chance - and we
would be treated to a repeat of Pol Pot, of the Gulag. All they really want is
CONTROL, to destroy capitalism, and to redistribute the goodies among
themselves, (THEY will have their dachas and their limos) and DAMN the poor.
There will be NO CRITICISM! Don’t be fooled by this lot; they ARE evil: http://pickeringpost.com/glance/facebook-bows-to-the-left/3558
23/07/2014: YOU may not SEE
it, but our Prime Minister has shown excellent leadership since Day One. His
latest dealing with Russian ‘terrorism’ is merely symptomatic. You have to give
him an ‘A’ for honesty and courage even when taking decisions that he KNOWS
will be unpopular; it is not Government’s role to BE popular, but to be GOOD.
As far as the Budget is concerned: all the adumbrated ‘cuts’ have done is
invite ignominy amid the half-witted ‘swinging’ voters who do not care to
understand reality. It was always MOST unlikely he would negotiate them through
a log-jam of thoroughly unpleasant wreckers in the Senate (but it is noble to
strive to do so)! Now, I think he might as well just get on with Governing and
let ‘bracket creep’ and careful spending take care of the deficit (albeit over
a much longer time frame). He has had immense success with his core promises
(boats/carbon tax) which will stand him in good stead in the long term. I think
he should repeal the mining tax, even though the Senate requires him to keep
the associated (over) spending – because it is such a drag on resource
development and economic progress in general.
23/07/2014: 1.4%: that’s
22/07/2014: I, for one, am not surprised (there IS no limit to human hypocrisy!): ‘People who claim to worry about climate change use more electricity than those who do not, a Government study has found. Those who say they are concerned about the prospect of climate change consume more energy than those who say it is “too far into the future to worry about,” the study commissioned by the Department for Energy and Climate Change found …’ http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/17/do-global-warmists-use-more-electricity-than-normal-people/
22/07/2014: Quote of the day: ‘In
21/07/2014: It is
interesting the way bower birds love blue things: their bowers are always
decorated with them, yet it is almost impossible to find anything blue in the
bush; indeed if you want to avoid losing bushwalking equipment always buy blue
torches, tent pegs, pocket knives, etc. The bluest thing you CAN find (if you
look closely) is the incredibly blue eyes bower birds have!
20/07/2014: ‘63 years ago,
we knew that 'The Catcher in the
20/07/2014: TWO great quotes
today: Arthur C. Clarke, ‘I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and
we’re skeptical.’ & John Kenneth Galbraith, ‘The only function of economic
forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.’
20/07/2014: WHAT A HORRIBLE
SENATE Tony has to deal with! Dominated
by EVIL folk who WILL not control their own spending OR increase taxation to
COVER such reckless spending. First we had the so-called $80 billion Tony was
accused of ‘cutting’ from schools and hospitals over the future decade - which
has not been financed by any prospective budget or tax increase. Now we have a
further $17 billion of spending predicated on income from the mining tax which
will never be raised - whether the tax is abolished or not! Yet the spending
MUST stay, we are told. The trouble is that such reckless deficit spending will
drag
19/07/2014:
19/07/2014: Is THIS the
kind of society we WANT: http://www.freerangekids.com/mom-jailed-for-letting-her-9-y-o-play-at-park-unsupervised-and-daughter-in-state-custody/
19/07/2014: Interesting
quote: ‘Sneaking into a country doesn’t make you an ‘immigrant’ any more than
breaking into a house makes you ‘part of the family’!
18/07/2014: Whose fault IS
it that so many folk don’t understand the meaning of the simplest verbs, eg
‘am’, ‘do’, ‘earn’, work’, ‘owe’…? Such simple everyday sentences as these are
clearly beyond the comprehension of MILLIONS of Australians, eg ‘I am a
cleaner’, ‘I work hard’, ‘I earn my own living’, ‘I do not think anyone owes
me’, ‘I owe no-one’, & etc, etc…
18/07/2014: Interesting
irony: on the day the Senate (finally) killed the carbon tax
18/07/2014: Who knows WHY
it just keeps getting colder in
17/07/2014: ‘Mahmoud Abbas…leader
of the Palestinian Authority asked Hamas a question that other bewildered
people are also asking: ‘What are you trying to achieve by sending
rockets?’…Hamas has recently fired more than 500 rockets at Israeli towns and
cities.’ Like SO much else in the Arab world, the answer is only ever,
‘LUNACY’: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/07/what-exactly-is-hamas-trying-to-prove/374342/
17/07/2014: Intelligent
observers of
15/07/2014: Quote of the
year: ‘The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude
bigger than to produce it,’ Alberto Brandolini
13/07/2014: William M. Gray, Ph.D. (gray@atmos.colostate.edu) is professor emeritus of atmospheric science at Colorado State University and head of the Tropical Meteorology Project at CSU’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences: ‘If there is a small negative water-vapour feedback of only -0.1 to -0.3oC (as I believe to be the case), then a doubling of CO2 should be expected to cause a global warming of no more than about 0.2-0.4oC. Such a small temperature change should be of little societal concern during the remainder of this century.’ (NB AND we have already had HALF of this!) Read his full article here: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/10/on-the-futility-of-long-range-numerical-climate-prediction/#more-98962
13/07/2014: BEWARE: THIS
certainly IS happening to our language: ‘It’s increasingly ridiculous to use
the word “liberal” to describe the modern American collectivist. There’s nothing liberal about them at
all. They’re shooting for the ultimate
subversion of liberty, by re-defining “liberty” as a form of compulsion. In other words, they’re saying you are being
oppressed unless a wise and virtuous dictatorial authority can force other
people to give you what the authoritarians have decided you “deserve.” You aren’t “free” as long as you must provide
for yourself.
13/07/2014: It will be
interesting to see whether
12/07/2014: ‘Asylum’(!)
Seekers: Sri Lanka’s Daily News: ‘There are the bad eggs and the incorrigible
in any society, and a few hundred people getting on boats because they think
the pavements Down Under are made of pure 24 carat, is no reflection on this
progressive society any more than a few Australian journalists aiming for
upward mobility in their professions by sensationalising hard luck stories is a
reflection on the general integrity of the good and industrious Australian
people.’
12/07/2014: Addendum: ‘Debt
& Obligation #2: Take the phrase, ‘We ought to help the poor’; I imagine
this is something inherited from Christianity & which (I suspect) was never
practiced anyway when Christianity was ascendant (and might partially explain
why Christ was crucified!), however…the phrase implies an obligation, which
implies a ‘debt’. Just exactly what financial/loyalty/deed contribution have
‘The Poor’ made to ‘Us’ that could CREATE such a debt? Indeed, in
12/07/2014: I think lots of
people have this problem (of anthropomorphising MORE with dead lions and such),
yet are able to completely ignore (indeed SUPPORT) the murder of countless
human babies (and others!) - like eg Emily Letts, who filmed her own
abortion (http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/05/07/this-is-my-positive-abortion-story/)
and who (inhumanly) comes up smiling at the end of it (a human life!): http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/07/03/just-pretend-this-dead-lion-is-a-human-baby-and-then-you-wont-be-so-upset/
11/07/2014: Tony was ONLY
referring to Japanese submariners (eg in Sydney &
11/07/2014: If ‘Big Oil’
caused anywhere near this amount of animal cruelty or environmental
destruction, Greenpeace et al would be screaming to close it DOWN…but THIS is
THEIR alternative: http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2014/07/08/solar_power_plants_burning_birds_usfws_report_on_california_facilities_and.html
11/07/2014: Even,
(especially?) Bob Carr, (Labor’s last Foreign Minister) thinks it is perfectly
OK to send Tamils (etc) back to
11/07/2014: There has been
NO decrease in the number of refugees Australia accepts, just that they must be
selected BY US and possess their identity documents, come from groups waiting
patiently in refugee camps, and be
already accepted by the UNHCR as genuine refugees, AND pass a fitness test - as
well as be likely to assimilate (Wow!) This is most preferable to the ONE PER
DAY (mostly economic refugees or potential terrorists who had destroyed their
documents) who DIED under Rudd/Gillard trying to get here on leaky boats.
Morrison should have simply stopped the two Sri Lankan boats and waited for the
Sri Lankan navy to pick them up: this is what WILL happen in the future, thanks
to the crazed Lefties who have hijacked the High Court (cf their voting down of
private property rights as guaranteed under our constitution under Roxon –
this, not Fromelles, was the blackest day in Australian history, AND a
compelling reason for abolishing the Hight Court along with the Senate).
10/07/2014: You CAN eat raw
rhubarb stalks, and there are many interesting other things to know about this
wonderful plant, eg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb
10/07/2014: Lots of folks
misunderstand the meaning of the concepts of ‘debt’ and ‘obligation’. This is
particularly apparent in their use of the words ‘owe’ and ‘ought’ (Old English āhte,
past tense of āgan
'owe'). BOTH imply a DEBT. Put simply, you incur a debt when someone spends
money on you, such as eg the several hundreds of thousands of dollars society
spends on raising and educating its young to University entrance level or
higher. The consequence of such a debt is that the recipients ‘ought’ repay
that debt, ie have an obligation to do so, eg by engaging in productive work,
paying their taxes, etc. Exactly the same is true of all such spending on
people, eg on welfare, education, health, aboriginal affairs & etc. By
‘accepting’ (or requiring) the spending the recipient OWES the debt and ‘ought’
REPAY it. This is not too much to ask; it is only fair. It is what having a
societal ‘safety net’ is all about. There IS no such thing as a free lunch!
People misuse the terms frequently, such as when they say things like, ‘
10/07/2014: We DO need this.
Such waste is dreadful: http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/07/jason-morrison-on-the-need-for-an-opt-out-register-for-organ-donation.html
09/07/2014: Spot ON, Larry:
‘There was a time, before the baby-boom generation took over, when we
took pride in the achievements of our builders, producers and innovators… Many of
the genuine conservationists from the original environmental societies were
replaced by political extremists who felt lost after the Comrade Societies
collapsed and
09/07/2014: AGE never was
any bar: http://kottke.org/13/08/the-surprising-ages-of-the-founding-fathers-on-july-4-1776
09/07/2014: The ‘young
folks’ at ‘Ancestry’ sure are naïve about the number and kind of life skills
the average ‘modern’ has lost; I could add a solid double handful before I even
draw breath (eg the Cobb & Co hitch, the Spanish windlass, knitting,
crochet, food preservation,…): http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/2014/05/13/skills-your-great-grandparents-had-that-you-dont/?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral&o_xid=60678&o_lid=60678&o_sch=Content+Marketing
08/07/2014: Erratum: Re
recovery of the ASX: as soon as the (new) Senate chose to delay voting on
repealing the carbon tax yesterday, the market headed south again (particularly
mining stocks). Today the High Court (now simply the plaything of the Left - NB
their decision over a year ago now to smash private property rights – as
guaranteed by the constitution) is aimed to torpedo the Government’s
(enormously successful) ‘boats’ policy. The Senate and the High Court (not to
mention the ABC) are anathema to democracy – and urgently need reform or
abolition, preferably the latter!
08/07/2014: While WE have
been busily banning drilling in National Parks, Barrier Reefs… (& opposing
fracking just about everywhere) whilst our supply of crude dribbles to an end,
and our national debt spirals out of control (even though half the population
drives a Thai SUV!), the US has been turning the game around so that NOW they
are the biggest oil producer in the world, (and with the Green River formation
in Wyoming (greater than the sum of ALL the word’s known reserves!) coming on
stream, they are set to remain that way for a long while to come. Cheers to
Uncle Sam: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-04/u-s-seen-as-biggest-oil-producer-after-overtaking-saudi.html
08/07/2014: Satellites do
not LIE: YET another month with no warming. This year’s ‘crop’ of High School
graduates will have experienced NO warming for their entire lifetime – yet most
of their years of ‘education’ has been a continuing attempt to convince them of
the reality of ‘global warming’! Where are the naked ‘Emperor’ - & ‘Chicken
Little’ again: https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/clip_image002.png
08/07/2014: I could get
behind this cause: FREE THE HAGGIS: http://reason.com/blog/2014/07/03/baylen-linnekin-on-the-move-to-free-the
07/07/2014: Absolutely: http://www.luckyculture.com.au/2014/07/04/bill-leak-comments-on-tuesdays-column/
07/07/2014: I was pretty
happy with the ‘Declaration’, bifocals & pot-belly stoves actually, but
this guy was responsible for SO much more: http://mentalfloss.com/article/29762/10-ben-franklins-lesser-known-feats-awesomeness
07/07/2014: I am frankly
sick of whinging lefties attacking the budget – as if Joe Hockey was ‘Attilla
the Hun’. The budget ‘cuts’ are NOT cuts at all, (but a more modest INCREASE)
in Government outlays which will, over time, repair the budget bottom line. At
the moment we are borrowing $1 BILLION per MONTH just to pay the interest on
debt. If nothing is done, in ten years’ time that sum will be $2.8 BILLION per
month (or $100 MILLION per DAY!) The Labor party (and others) need to say how
THEY would fix the mess THEY created! They need to ‘put up or shut up’! http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/not_savage_and_no_surprise/
07/07/2014: I KNOW the
blind may not be able to see the difference, but it is just this: Israel has
arrested and will punish (if found guilty) these murderers, whilst the
Palestinians continue to celebrate and honour their murderers; it is an
enormous gulf between such barbarism, and civilised behaviour: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/07/world/middleeast/israel-palestinians-muhammad-abu-khdeir.html?_r=1
06/07/2014: What could be more
bizarre: religos urging the Government to 'respect the science' - just like
they do with their absurd theist nonsense! http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/respect-climate-science-anglicans-urge-tony-abbott-to-change-tack-on-climate-change-policies-20140704-zsvyn.html
06/07/2014: Back in 1955 Emma 'Grandma' Gatewood (67 - mother of eleven and grandmother of twenty-three) was the first person to solo hike the (3,000km = 5 million steps ) Appalachian trail using her own home-made gear...She stood five foot two and weighed 150 pounds and the only survival training she had were lessons learned earning calluses on her farm. She had a mouth full of false teeth and bunions the size of prize marbles. She had no map, no sleeping bag, no tent. She was blind without her glasses, and she was utterly unprepared if she faced the wrath of a snowstorm, not all that rare on the trail. Five years before, a freezing Thanksgiving downpour killed more than three hundred in Appalachia, and most of them had houses....And she walked it THREE times...so what's STOPPING you: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/pick-up-your-feet-montgomery.html#.U7iX3rHm5dk Ebook here @ $16.95: https://books.jbhifi.com.au/Book/grandma-gatewoods-walk-the-inspiring-story-of-ben-montgomery/426687?gclid=CMy87qTJr78CFcIIvAodOaUA1Q
06/07/2014: Hard to believe
you could destroy a country by bombing it with the equivalent of Weston’s Wagon
Wheels, but such is the nature of
06/07/2014: John Roskam:
‘The great American conservative William F. Buckley Jr. said: “I would rather
be governed by the first two thousand people in the
06/07/2014: Just finished
reading this book, ‘
05/07/2014: Poor old
Rolfie: Five years in the slammer DOES seem like a lot (comparatively) for
having had (consensual) heterosexual sex with teenage girls who were (no doubt)
then (as now) ‘hot to trot’ – as the saying goes…at least when you compare it
with the quite trivial sentences which have been handed out to our (beloved)
clergy for homosexual RAPE of numerous pre-pubescent boys back when, or
compared with the fate of fellow octa- and nonagenarians found to have quite
simply MURDERED hundreds of Jews during WW2. The Left seem to have selective
memories about what was ‘acceptable’ behaviour back when - as THEIR beloved
Leunig’s illustrations of drunken lecher Sam Orr’s book from the 70’s
illustrates - when a ‘healthy’ admiration of nubile femmes was not considered
quite so declasse as it now is. I also note that there are now literally hordes
of would-be aggrieved belles dames keen to get their hooks into the dosh - now
that it seems probable that compensation claims might be in the offing. Ah,
what a heartbreak old world you are: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/rolf_would_have_laughed/
05/07/2014: THREE beautiful
days on the ASX – is the market FINALLY heading up from where Rudd/Gillard
drove it? Thank YOU, Tony Abbott!
05/07/2014: HOW is it that
guys who ‘design’ supermarket car-parks have failed to notice that EVERYONE now
has a dual cab SUV with the turning circle of a semi-trailer. The ‘new’
car-park in Churchill (SEVEN years in the ‘building’ of basically a concrete
paddock!) will HAVE to be by-passed by at least HALF the population as there is
simply nowhere to park a largish car!
05/07/2014: MH370: SOMEONE
is not telling us the truth: I was just looking at our Jindalee ‘over the
horizon’ radar network. Given the (present) Government’s intense desire to
‘stop the boats’ and other unwanted intrusions into our region, it seems
vanishingly unlikely that Jindalee did NOT ‘see’ MH370 if it flew for several
hours southwards across the West Australian coast. Either it DID (and was
‘seen’ – and is on the LOG), or it did not, and is somewhere else…A little more
information please Mr Abbott: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jindalee_Operational_Radar_Network
04/07/2014: Hiking food
again: Ainsley Harriott ‘Creamy Vegetable Spelt’: THIS was quite delicious (so
long as you have eg a Brasslite stove to simmer it on for @ 20 minutes). If you
feel you might need more protein, a sachet of tuna, 100 gram can of ham etc
might be stirred in at the end:
04/07/2014: It ain’t half
hot, mum: Antarctic sea-ice hit yet another record high today:
04/07/2014: Another triumph
for ‘liberty’, Valle is to walk free – after all what COULD be wrong with
murder and cannibalism – viewed properly they are just alternative
‘lifestyles’, aren’t they (particularly if the ‘victim’ agrees, as in the
Miewes case http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Meiwes
): http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/01/cannibal-cop-conviction-overturned/11894353/
03/07/2014: There IS an
answer to those alarmists talking up the Emperor penguin’s imminent demise. Dr.
Michelle LaRue has provided evidence showing twice as many emperors as had
previously been thought. I guess the story ranks alongside the tenfold increase
in polar bear numbers in the last fifty years: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/01/blinded-by-beliefs-the-straight-poop-on-emperor-penguins/#more-112307
03/07/2014: Just maybe
these guys don’t appreciate continued Saudi funding: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/06/isis-promises-to-destroy-the-kaaba-in-mecca/
03/07/2014: A newly married
man asked his wife, 'Would you have married me if my father hadn't left me a
fortune?' 'Honey,' the woman replied sweetly, 'I'd have married you no matter
who left you a fortune."
02/07/2014: VERY touching eulogy: ‘Minds me of our old Maremma, Brandy who died two years ago at 14 (of prostate cancer). Even as he became weaker and weaker, he refused to forsake his duty: he slowly followed the sheep each day to pasture even though it took most of his day to make it there, and back again. The moment he had any suffering, I rescued him immediately with my .22. You can guarantee that my end will be the same. He was a GREAT dog and saved many thousands of lambs from an awful death. As I have said before, often I prefer dogs to people: http://lileks.com/bleats/archive/14/0214/020314.html
02/07/2014: Thank goodness
for the government’s cuts – I couldn’t stand much more of THIS: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/bad_abbott_hands_off_arts_grants_for_spider_sex/
02/07/2014: Scientology had
its status as a religion withdrawn. Why can’t this be done to Islam? An
EXAMPLE: The wife of the prophet Mohammed was a 6 year-old girl, A’isha… she,
herself, is quoted in Sahih, Book 008, Number 3310: “A’isha, Allah be pleased
with her, reported: Allah’s apostle, may peace be upon him, married me (that
means betrothed) when I was six years old and I was admitted to his house (that
means sexually abused) when I was 9 years old.” & http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/06/questions-of-fact-arising-from-my-chat-with-ben-fordham-on-2gb.html
& http://pickeringpost.com/story/the-road-to-damascus-was-blocked/3458
01/07/2014: Must do this next shearing time:
01/07/2014: MORE Senators
like THIS, please: ‘In my term in Parliament, I want to convince Australians to
reconsider whether handing their money over to the government is better than
keeping it themselves. I want them to understand that disapproving of something
does not justify it being prohibited or heavily regulated. I want them to
understand the connection between the liberties they care about and the liberty
of others, and to understand that individual freedom is universal, precious and
must be fiercely protected…’ David
Leyonhjelm, Liberal Democratic Party.
01/07/2014:
Seriously accurate tree felling - I doubt this would
happen if I was in charge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZWeKw6dS58#t=105
01/07/2014: Changes to marriage/motherhood must have profound (and I suspect entirely deleterious) effects on society: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/childless-elite-spouseless-poor/
30/06/2014: Tim Blair: ‘The 17,920 dots shown here represent just a small fraction of the 832,034 Australians currently claiming the disability pension. For a more accurate representation of the disability pensioner total, copy this image 46 times and then add another 1000 people every single week until Australia is broke.’
30/06/2014:
These folks are NOT hypocrites? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/10920198/Greenpeace-executive-flies-250-miles-to-work.html
Sure ARE: http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=85039
30/06/2014:
THIS is deeply disturbing. I USED to believe in
tolerance, and was opposed to ‘discrimination’. That was before I realised you
HAVE to discriminate against EVIL. When you have a clearly identifiable
population a VERY large percentage of whom (eg 15-25-40% - estimates vary) WANT
to do you harm, you HAVE to discriminate: Excerpt: ASIO: Report to Parliament:
‘Influences in
30/06/2014: This is why the Greenies oppose ‘fracking’: ‘Natural gas from hydraulic fracturing is a direct threat to the growth of wind and solar energy. Gas-fuelled power plants are low-cost and dispatchable. In contrast, wind and solar electricity is two to three times the price and plagued by intermittent output, unable to respond to varying electrical demand. With hundreds of years of natural gas available from hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques, why build another wind turbine?’ The article explains why their efforts (must?) fail: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/06/11/environmental-groups-have-lost-the-war-against-fracking/#more-111297
29/06/2014: Oh Boy! Do we ever need to do this in Oz: http://isil.org/the-town-that-privatized-everything/
29/06/2014:
Ain’t it the truth: A plea from the new imperialists
(the Greens, etc): ‘Please give me the power. I promise to make
everything new and beautiful for you ignorant little people who do not
understand what you really want or what is best for you. Furthermore, I'll turn
your slob husbands into young studs, your wives into Miss Americas, your bank
accounts into mountains of gold, and I'll make the oceans recede by shipping water
to the moon (with apologies to those with waterfront property).’
29/06/2014:
If anyone thinks it is
28/06/2014: The war on ‘offensive nomenclature’ continues…where will it end: http://youngcons.com/liberals-passed-a-bill-to-change-this-fishs-name-because-it-is-hurtful-and-offensive/
Asian Carp
28/06/2014:
Lots of fun with spurious correlations: http://www.tylervigen.com/
28/06/2014: Here is a
‘cool’ idea: THIS sustainability ‘expert’ whom I heard this morning talking to
Alan Jones on 2GB (you should really try this. It’s free – and doesn’t cost you
$1 BILLION, like the ABC here) claims that the temperature difference between
the road and his back garden etc is 5C. Who knew? Maybe he should think about
all those dark tile rooves as well. And then, he might start thinking about the
heat output of all those air cons and car exhausts. Even the several million
PEOPLE alone in
27/06/2014:
Some very interesting points in this article, including this one (which
surprised me): ‘
27/06/2014: MH370: ‘Sources close to the investigation confirmed to The Telegraph on Sunday that a deleted flight path had been recovered from Capt Zaharie's simulator which had been used to practice landing an aircraft on a small runway on an unnamed island in the far southern Indian Ocean.’ His wife has also confirmed HE spoke the final words, ergo he was piloting the aircraft when it disappeared. Is it POSSIBLE then, that the plane landed at some such mystery runway and THEN took off again to be crashed (or whatever) at it final location? If it IS possible and if it actually happened, there MAY be survivors! (At least him) But where are they? This ‘theory’ assumes there was something very valuable on the plane (and that the whole operation was a huge HEIST, possibly including mass murder). TWO tonnes of cargo ARE yet to be identified. As well, there were (no doubt) some VERY valuable Chinese on the plane. Interesting times…It has been quite some time since Inmarsat released all its data; presumably other folk have had time to double-check their results. Even so, if the main rationale for choosing the so-called ‘Southern’ route remains the absence of radar detection, our own failure to detect it when it was within our over-the-horizon ‘envelope’ (switched off at the time) indicates others could have similarly failed (and it could still have landed along the ‘Northern’ route). If however, it took the ‘Southern’ route, there are not many islands I can see where it could have landed (and taken off). More if it could have done so on a beach. Possible? I don’t know. The Andamans would have to be the most likely such ‘way-point’. Such a theory pretty much implies Zaharie had accomplice/s. Eventually I suppose we WILL know: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/malaysia/10917868/MH370-captain-plotted-route-to-southern-Indian-Ocean-on-home-simulator.html
27/06/2014: It IS so NICE to know that Chelsea Clinton doesn’t care about money: ‘the snail’s on the thorn…and all’s right with the world’ (‘Pippa’s Song’ from ‘Pippa Passes’, Robert Browning): http://neveryetmelted.com/2014/06/24/the-anchoress-spanks-chelsea-clinton/
26/06/2014: Robbie Burns warned us over 200 years ago:
"The
best laid schemes of Mice and Men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!"
26/06/2014:
PROOF: Climate alarmists simply FAKED the warming they
claim will engulf us all. The reality is that the world has been COOLING for
nearly a century! http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/noaanasa-dramatically-altered-us-temperatures-after-the-year-2000/
26/06/2014: Aussie boy Zacky Malah is the guy in the centre of the photo below. Leo’s warning is REAL: and pressing; we ignore it at our EXTREME peril: http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/leo-mckinstry/484235/Leo-McKinstry-on-multi-cultralism
25/06/2014: The ‘average’ man’s shoe size has increased (since 1970) from Size 8 (me) to size 10. I make THAT 25%. When truly alarming changes (eg of the climate or environmental ‘toxicity & etc kind) are measured in picograms and such, such a profound change in only a generation should start such enormous panic that we should ALL be running away (presumably 25% faster, now). But really, what CAN have prompted such a profound alteration (and WHERE will it end?) We look set pretty soon to be very like ducks. At least many swimming records will continue to be broken. I note that an excess of human growth hormone will cause this sort of change in an individual – but if that’s the cause, where IS this hormone coming from? Growth promoters in poultry perhaps? I thought they had been banned. Anyway, something else to worry about! Over to you…
25/06/2014: Quote of the Week: ‘What you suggest may be all very well in practice, but it will never work in theory’. Apocryphal French philosopher.
25/06/2014: 3100 live cops can’t be wrong! Stephanie Klowlek, the inventor of Kevlar dies: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/06/22/Inventor-Of-Kevlar-Dies-At-90
24/06/2014: Ah, Tim Blair, I salute your Bad taste: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/compo_caliphate/
24/06/2014:
Police call it
corroboration. EXACTLY! The ABC generally (and shamefully!), John
Faine in particular and sundry others have been making the same point Mark
Latham struggles to make in the Fin Rveiew, and which Michael Smith so
devastatingly critiques here: ‘Who knows what motivates a politician? Mark Latham in the Fin Review sums up oral
evidence at the Royal Commission. Documents aside, what verbal evidence has
come before the commission concerning Gillard? Like a parade of ageing Oompa
Loompas, three impish men – Ralph Blewitt, Wayne Hem and Athol James – claimed
to remember cash being exchanged in and around her
24/06/2014:
23/06/2014: Now THAT is a VERY good question: ‘As plastic is made from oil and oil is made from dead dinosaurs, how much actual real dinosaur is there in a plastic dinosaur?’ And the answer is: http://what-if.xkcd.com/101/
23/06/2014: As a (sometime) conservative myself, I confess I just did not KNOW this: ‘Same-sex marriage fits comfortably within the conservative ideology of the self-sufficient family and contributes to the politics of state austerity,’ or this: ‘Isn’t marriage merely a clever ploy to keep us quiet about the trickier issues such as the deportation of lesbian asylum seekers?’ Maybe the Left have moved even further away from YOU too: http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2014/06/princesses-and-peas.html
23/06/2014: Bad news for socialists (and most of the rest of us too): Most of us are not going anywhere, (but perhaps, given a little more time, we might): http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2014/06/pays-choose-ancestors-carefully/
22/06/2014: Terrorism expert Brigitte Gabriel goes through the numbers. And the answer is, 180 -300 million Islamic extremists…Truly terrifying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry3NzkAOo3s
22/06/2014: Patrick Moore (FOUNDER of Greenpeace) on Greenpeace members today: 'If you ask them for the name of any mine that is operating in an environmentally acceptable standard you will draw a blank. They have become so cornered by their own extremism that they must deny their daily use of cell phones, computers, bicycles, rapid transit, and yes, the simple teaspoon.' http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/06/19/CO2-is-good-for-us-climate-change-is-bunk-greens-are-raging-extremists-says-Greenpeace-co-founder
21/06/2014: BUSTED! In the last 17 years CO2 has gone up @15%. In the same period, world temperature has flat-lined. END OF STORY!
21/06/2014: How many things are wrong in our society for it to encourage THIS: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/portrait_of_a_disability_pensioner/
21/06/2014: Study asserts startling numbers of insider trading rogues: They had to do a STUDY to find this out? I watch the market every day, and you can just about bet that when a stock mysteriously shoots up or down, TOMORROW there will be an announcement nobody was supposed to know about: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101764568
20/06/2014: Holy Cow: With this shovel, the chinks will conquer the world: Original Chinese Army Multifunctional Military Shovel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ryyAenmzHM#t=125
20/06/2014: Is THIS the best ad for a knife ever? The ‘Cold Steel’ brand kukri (Start about 37 secs in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7dS8YWqymo#t=121
20/06/2014:
Gillard's best friend Robyn McLeod named at Royal Commission: Bruce Wilson told
the Royal Commission that Robyn McLeod did work for the AWU Workplace Reform
Association in
19/06/2014: Be WARNED: You really can BORE yourself to death watching soccer: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2014/06/16/Chinese-man-dies-from-sleep-deprivation-after-staying-up-late-to-watch-the-World-Cup/2231402924470/#ixzz34wlEFdUG
19/06/2014: A VERY good story (in pics); the power of love: http://www.thefleurdelys.com/pdfs/Love-Story-Wounded-Warrior.pdf
19/06/2014: The voice of sanity: Tony Abbott last week in Texas: ‘Affordable, reliable energy fuels enterprise and drives employment…For many decades at least coal will continue to fuel human progress as an affordable, dependable energy source for wealthy and developing countries alike.’
19/06/2014:
Well Done, George Bush (Snr). Keep fit: we may need you in
18/06/2014: I LOVE prawns, but I doubt if this is true, I will buy ‘Product of Thailand’ (anything) ever again: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/10/supermarket-prawns-thailand-produced-slave-labour
18/06/2014: If you have difficulty buying stuff online, check out http://www.shipito.com/ You can (for example) buy that stuff on Amazon (which has free US shipping but which they won’t send to Oz) and have shipito forward it. Some sites won’t (eg http://www.montbell.us/ who have wonderful ultralight clothing, sleeping bags, etc) even let you buy, but you can get a ‘virtual’ US debit card from shipito which will allow you to do so. THIS is the best sleeping bag: http://www.moontrail.com/montbell-ul-spiral-down-hugger-3-reg.php
18/06/2014: What a GREAT story. I feel I have met this woman somewhere: http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/216498/woman-accidentally-joins-search-party-looking-for-herself/
17/06/2014: I notice the ABC’s Linda Mottram claiming yesterday Tony Abbott has ALREADY forced young women into prostitution (by putting up Uni fees and reducing the dole – things which have YET to be passed by Parliament!) Naturally he is also responsible for global warming, the spread of European wasps in our gardens, chewing gum on our footpaths, the increasing madness of the Left, & etc, etc.
17/06/2014: Ain’t it the truth: Jon Gabriel: ‘When natural gas production was a too-expensive alternative to oil, the environmental lobby promoted it as a surefire way to reduce carbon emissions. Close the coal- and oil-fired plants; convert cars to run on CNG. Yes, it will devastate industries, cost jobs and burn billions of dollars, but think of the children! Since even malevolent industrialists love their kids, energy barons took the greens’ advice and found cheaper, more efficient ways to extract and transport natural gas. What a victory for the movement! But instead of celebrating, envirolobbyists rent their garments over their once-miraculous fuel. The instant green energy translated into Big Oil profits, progressives placed the CNG and fracking on their naughty list …Every time a real-world solution is provided to a promised calamity, leftist leaders move the goalposts …That’s because the Left doesn’t really believe in climate change. Their true religion is raising taxes, increasing government, impeding capitalism and reducing national sovereignty. Climate change is just a temporary excuse to achieve those ends.’
17/06/2014: The dreadful internecine mass murder in Iraq has to be seen to be believed; we must do everything we possibly can to quarantine ourselves from such horror as this before we begin to see it happening in Melbourne, Sydney, etc: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/just_one_week_in_the_world_of_islam_what_is_wrong_with_this_faith/
17/06/2014: Let's NOT forget, OBAMA ARMED these people (ISIS) whilst Putin backed Assad!
17/06/2014: Perhaps THIS is what many are like: http://pickeringpost.com/story/more-info-from-manus/3388
16/06/2014: It would have to be worth a try: http://ww2.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/2014/06/05/fasting-for-three-days-renews-entire-immune-system-protects-cancer-patients-remarkable-new-study-finds
16/06/2014:
A very fair point,
16/06/2014: Good cop, Bad cop. The Costigan Royal Commission and the current ‘AWU’ Royal Commission, ICAC in NSW & etc continually expose the evil and corruption rife in our country (especially in the Left of the political spectrum – but it has also ensnared Sinodinis). I have long argued for much tougher penalties for the corruption of public officials (indeed I think they should receive the DEATH penalty!) The Rogerson/Drury ‘incident’ is a case in point, as was the bashing of Bob Kernohan as revealed in the RC yesterday: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/mirandadevine/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/haunting_legacy_of_a_night_of_terror/
15/06/2014: What an excellent idea: http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/24420-Recoil.html
15/06/2014: Alcatel have boosted VDSL ‘vectoring’ internet speeds to 300mbps, so fibre to the home is really NOT going to be necessary. Attenuation may still be a problem out here where we are (@ 4km from the exchange, though we DO have wires with a larger cross section in the country - which will help), and you CAN use two pairs of wires to double your speed as well. It may be that we will eventually get better speeds sticking with the copper network than we would get (@20mbps) from NBN’s fixed wireless @ 300 metres away on the top of the hill opposite (as well as having a telephone which works in emergencies) A fire would take out the tower as it is in the bush behind us, but not affect the copper lines which are underground in clear land between Churchill and here. We may try the new fixed wireless, but retain our copper lines while we ‘wait and see’. We get nearly 7mbps NOW, so now that I have discovered ‘iLivid’ I just don’t need any more speed: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/products/phantom-mode
15/06/2014:
Our Government has to APPEAL to UNESCO to withdraw World Heritage Listing of
parts of OUR country! Huh? UNESCO (indeed the entire United Nations) comprise
nothing but UNELECTED BUREAUCRATS. We should NEVER sign away our sovereignty by
endorsing UN ‘conventions,’ as this transfers power from individual Australian
citizens to such unelected bureaucrats, and is (apparently) legally
IRREVERSIBLE. As an example, a couple of years ago our politicians ‘ratified’ a
‘convention’ making it ‘impossible’ for a future Government (in
15/06/2014: Naming Nebulae: I don’t think it is a COYOTE’S head at all. It is clearly an image of our beloved JR, Spot: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/5824-sig14-009-Coyote-Head-Nebula-Does-Not-Approve
14/06/2014: I may need to reconsider my advocacy of superannuation. Apparently somewhere during those madcap Rudd-Gillard years they raised the age at which you can access your OWN money (from 55 to 60 - if you were born after 1964). I would guess the reason was because of the current crop of ‘retirees’ claiming their quite inadequate savings at 55, spending it all, then coming back to impose themselves on the public purse when they are 65. THIS needed changing, not whether you could access your savings in a responsible manner if you had enough to support you for the remainder of your life. I am just as much against FORCING people to continue in the workforce (at 56, 61, 66…or any age) as anyone else – so long as you can provide for yourself. Younger people maybe need to reconsider their strategy of taking the tax concession on superannuation savings IF their savings are going to be locked up (mayhap until AFTER their own deaths!) Perhaps they need to look at some other tax effective strategies for retaining control of their savings, such as negative gearing in rental property (good luck with making a profit from THAT), owning a business, gold, futures, CFDs, offshore investments, etc. Of course NOTHING will prevent the rapacious Left from STEALING your savings and spending them on their much more ‘deserving’ selves (or pet projects) - if they can!
14/06/2014: I haven’t seen the new ‘Godzilla’ movie yet (or ‘Noah’) but apparently both open with alarmist greenie critiques of mining as the big bogey which has to be destroyed. This is becoming a frighteningly too-familiar meme. I see Santos is (this morning) reappraising its coal seam gas development in the Pilliga, which adds to a long litany of mining retreats from Australia (Olympic Dam, James Price Point…etc) taking many hundreds of billions of dollars which would have flowed to Australia off to such more desirable locales as Guinea, the Atacama Desert, Mongolia, Mozambique, Cameroon etc. The same doom is befalling mining (too high costs and over-regulation) as previously befell manufacturing, then farming, forestry and fisheries…so that we WILL have no viable internationally competitive industry of any sort to underpin future economic prosperity (unless we can find a burgeoning market into which we can export leftist greenie idiots – and their rules - who are proliferating uncontrollably here!)
14/06/2014: Perhaps this should be compulsory reading to qualify for the franchise: http://mises.org/books/economics_in_one_lesson_hazlitt.pdf
13/06/2014: ‘Protect me mummy!’ This is the ubiquitous infantile prayer so beloved by religos and socialists. Since Government replaced God, it has a different note. At least the religious never really believed that God WOULD provide; they prayed but had still better provide for themselves…but socialists actually expect you don’t need to provide for yourself, because the Government WILL. This is a worrying development. Nothing is worse about it though than its babyish, puerile DEPENDENCY. NOTHING can replace people standing on their own two feet, taking on whatever the world throws at them with willingness, determination and courage – and providing for themselves: the chiefest role of Government in all this should be in setting the scene which makes human independence possible.
13/06/2014: The importance of hunting: ‘The report shows that hunting contributes $417 million annually to the Victorian economy, making us second only to the Spring Racing Carnival in importance to the state.’ http://gallery.mailchimp.com/e126ff12cbbcb8d3dfa71147b/files/7606e35c-a6a4-4da9-9775-acffc04f8211.pdf
13/06/2014: Human excrescences are not much in use any more. Once a vast industry revolved around the collection and preparation of human urine (for the chemical industry, dyeing, tanning, fellmongering, etc), but it has, alas fallen by the wayside; more artificial chemicals have replaced it. You would think that the ‘back to nature’ brigade would be ‘up in arms’ about this. There is also huge potential to collect human dung for recycling as nutrients. Millions of tonnes are simply swept into the seas (for the benefit of undeserving fishies alone) which could be spread on our fields to make them fertile, or used as some other raw material, perhaps in the building industry: I’m sure it could be formed into perfectly serviceable and natural house bricks. Why then you could properly say you live in a s—t house! A few die-hard recyclers yet collect navel fluff for stuffing small cushions. The odd carpenter mayhap still runs a nail (to be driven into a difficult piece of wood) through his hair to lubricate it (though no doubt the fashion to avoid Macassar – and the prevalence of nail guns has diminished this too, alas). As a hiker, you may like to know that when you burn the tips of your fingers on your billy, for example, they can be soothed by the oily excrescences of your ears. There’s a useful ultralight hiking tip for you! I learned it from this wonderful old fellow Richard Graves, The Bushcraft Books: http://chrismolloy.com/page.php?u=p131
12/06/2014: Despite the indisputable FACT that our ex-Prime Minister GILLARD is being PROVEN to be a CROOK and a LIAR at the Royal Commission into union corruption, AND that the current opposition leader is also IMPLICATED at VERY least as a THUG, the ABC and the Age are both running dead on the story – as if it were not the BIGGEST STORY in the last several years of Australian history. The ABC should be abolished (or privatised – if anyone wants it!) It is a NATIONAL DISGRACE! AGAIN, you can watch it all LIVE, here: http://rcommedia.com.au/turc/live/
12/06/2014: The Palmersaurus: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/know_your_thunder_lizards/
12/06/2014: Also see Miranda: https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.news.com.au%2Fdailytelegraph%2Fmirandadevine%2Findex.php%2Fdailytelegraph%2Fcomments%2Ftaking_the_electorate_for_fools%2F&h=iAQFK_Nul
12/06/2014:
If you think the caricature IS a bit tasteless (and
I admit it is), you DO have to remember that Clive actually RESIDES in a
defuinct
12/06/2014:
Heat death or cold death: Here is the Central
England Temperature dataset (the longest RECORDED dataset on earth (compete
with a false ‘hockey stick’ at the end kindly provided by Hadley). You will
notice that the average temperature is somewhere like a rather chilly 9C. Now,
does anyone SERIOUSLY believe that there would be terrible disaster if the
average temperature was 11C, an increase of the approx 2C the IPCC is always
banging on about? Folks in
12/06/2014: Quotable quote: Patrick Lion: ‘The ABC is massively over-funded. Consider this: if the ABC received similar per capita funding in the US as it does in Australia, its budget would be somewhere in the vicinity of $16.6 billion. That’s pretty much equal to the entire annual budget of NASA, yet the only person the ABC has ever put on the moon is Mr Squiggle.’
11/06/2014: This is Spotty's favourite trick of late!
11/06/2014: Spotty's hobbies include gardening..
11/06/2014: Castration is not so fashionable as it once was – when motorcycle petrol caps protruded in magnificent gonad scalloping splendour, or when it was more common for cuckolded husbands to perform this essential community service. Why once a friend of mine found a perfectly fresh pair of cojones still warmly wrapped in their tidy purse on the main street of Glebe. Carefully working them onto his handkerchief with the point of his umbrella (as you do), he hied him to the nearest police station to handed them in, asking (as you would) whether he could claim them if no-one else did (in a charming contralto!) Of course he never heard. Police in those days lacked somewhat in the cojone department, I guess. I am thinking that it would be desirable to re-implement a tad of castration, if only to create a susurration of concern amongst dilatory citizens such as tailgaters, like the one who followed me at about 2 metres distance yesterday morning in heavy fog. There are just too many aggressive drivers -who would benefit from this simple operation. Of course, I HAVE noted of late that rather too many such are young Ms. Where are THEY getting all this testosterone, I wonder: perhaps it is in the water supply, or the energy drinks…?
11/06/2014: Toilet rolls should be BANNED. I wonder really that our emerald agitators have not hit on this particular remedy for the woes of our troubled forests. Why when we are hiking we manage to get by with (at most) 2-3 Kleenex tissues a day, which saves a lot on pack weight – and the handy purse-sized dispensers prevent the tissues from becoming saturated and unusable in the rain (which would happen to a toilet roll). But, think of the vast forests to be saved if everyone was FORCED to do this EVERY day. Why, we should never resile from the ability to use force on the citizenry – to make them better, of course!
11/06/2014: The gratitude of dogs: It really is less likely that dogs will bite the hand that feeds them than is the case with two-legged ‘pets’. I am minded of this each morning by the looks of adoring gratitude from our two, as I restoke the pot belly they are lying adjacent to or underneath. The effort spent caring for dogs is always handsomely rewarded, yet efforts to help our fellow humans is too often returned with spite and recriminations: is it any wonder really so many of people PREFER dogs?
10/06/2014: DEMOCRACY really IS the most wonderful form of Government! You can WATCH the Royal Commission LIVE, here: http://rcommedia.com.au/turc/live/
10/06/2014: It may be surprising to YOU that: Income inequality has been falling globally (and would likely fall a lot more quickly if it were not for the interference of Governments): http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/inequality-is-falling,-globally.aspx
10/06/2014: You might THINK (at first) that it looks a bit long, but THIS is a GREAT speech. Maybe you will figure out why I think this guy has been the greatest American President (so far): Ronald Reagan’s ‘Fortieth Anniversary of D-Day’ Speech’. Remember as you listen (and are captivated by it, as I was), that Reagan too was a WW2 veteran: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEIqdcHbc8I) You MIGHT care to contrast it to Obama’s ‘70th Anniversary of D-Day Speech’ (but I wouldn’t bother): (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oruve06Hz1E)
10/06/2014:
Right wing/Left wing? As far as I can see there ARE
no ‘right wing’ parties in
09/06/2014: It’s going to be a VERY hot week for Ju-Liar at the Royal Commission this week, Evidence will be heard from Ian Cambridge, Olive Palmer, Wayne Hem, Kon Spyridis, Athol James…All these folk can attest she benefited from and/or participated in Wilson’s frauds. Blewitt has already testified he paid $7,000 for her house renovations. Spyridis and Hem will add $20,000 to that sum, taking it to AT LEAST $27,000 – a fair amount of loose change back in 1991. You should LISTEN UP and stop being in denial: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/julia-gillards-buried-story-unearthed/story-fni0ffxg-1226947496876 & http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/06/the-australian-today-gillards-builders-to-testify-at-the-royal-commission-not-good-news-for-ms-gilla.html
09/06/2014: Non-PC I guess, but more metaphorical training needed, surely: officers ‘probing’ rape allegations at the ADF swear (repeatedly) to get ‘to the bottom’ of the matter; when ‘the bottom’ IS THE ‘bottom’, a more appropriate phrase needs to be chosen. They should get to the ‘root’ of it, probe every dark recess, ferret it out, & etc
09/06/2014: The stars ARE crazy: Gwyneth Paltrow: ‘I am fascinated by the growing science behind the energy of consciousness and its effects on matter…I have long had Dr Emoto's coffee table book on how negativity changes the structure of water, how the molecules behave differently depending on the words or music being expressed around it.’ http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/06/05/gwyneth-paltrow-mean-words-hurts-water-feelings/?intcmp=features
Blonde!
09/06/2014: Somebody really should start calling it ‘Income Diversity’. How could Progressives be against it then?
08/06/2014: 'One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.' (Ronald Reagan) - loved this guy! Another of his greats, 'They say hard work never hurt anybody but I figure - why take the chance?'
08/06/2014: Invisible worlds: the archway: Straight outside our front door we have this archway: you’ve probably seen it before in family photos, as it makes an interesting backdrop. Around here we have often been too busy to notice things, but as we are slowing down we maybe have more time for noticing and less for doing…anyway, we were sitting in front of it the other night watching the pigeons fly…And hearing them too: since a have had my new Siemens waterproof hearing aids I can once again HEAR the wondrous ‘woosh’ of pigeon flight…we noticed a fair sized flock of starlings circling as well. It was just on dusk. We were wondering what they were doing. Well, Della put the pigeon food in the loft and opened the trap. The pigeons dropped into the loft like stones. A chill was creeping in, so we turned to go in the front door. Suddenly, literally in the blink of an eye I guess, 100 starlings fell out of the sky into that archway. They must have done this several thousand times since I built it many years ago, but we had never caught them doing so. They are quiet neighbours, obviously up at sunrise and off about their business, returning swiftly at dusk, and making no outward noise to advertise their presence. I am sure the potato vine has benefited enormously from their residence over the years though. So much in nature is virtually invisible to us even if it is right before our eyes. The arch was very simple to construct, and we do need more of them, one leading down to the shed, for example – a job for another day...I marked it out, drove 3’ lengths of ¾ gal water pipe into the ground vertically to half their length, then slipped the required length of concrete reo inside them (to form a hoop), and lengths of 1 ½ inch poly water pipe over them, Surprisingly each arch is strong enough like this for a large person like me to swing on. Having made a row of them, we simply clad them with light gal weldmesh (attached with cable ties), planted the potato vine/s, and voila! You used to be able to walk up pavers through it from the ‘guest’ parking below to our front door, but over the years Della has so cluttered it with interesting decorations this may no longer be possible…
08/06/2014: Paul Keating1995: ‘There is no such thing, of course, as “free” education. Somebody has to pay. In systems with no charges those somebodies are all taxpayers. This is a pretty important point: a “free” higher education system is one paid for by the taxes of all, the majority of whom haven’t had the privilege of a university education. Ask yourself if you think that is a fair thing.’
08/06/2014: ‘The parliament shall have the power to regulate the mixing, baking, serving, labelling, selling and consumption of food.’ Did the ‘founding fathers’ forget to write this provision into our Constitution? Certes the food faddists are out in force, baying for blood. THAT chocolate éclair, cream doughnut, or oatmeal stout even may be your last.
07/06/2014:
Pets: I guess we have owned many tens of thousands
of head of livestock over the years (mainly sheep and goats). I’m afraid they
all had (pretty much) to pay their way: we were always a working farm – no
Government subsidies out here. A sheep had to produce lambs and/or wool, or it
was off to the abattoir at six months, 1 ,2, 3 years old…whatever. Some old
girls have paid their way so well, they deserve a pension. A few old sheep have
raised over 30 lambs each over the years.
As far as I am concerned, they can just die of old age around here, eating
clover. They have done their job well. In fact, having kept the progeny of such
girls, we have extended the profitable average age of our sheep by several
years, thus sparing many great dams from the abattoir. But, of course, these
good old gals just keep producing, year after year. Our sheep were never our
pets but rather working animals, though some old girls were too, eg Angel who
raised 34 lambs over the years, and we were all sad to see her go. She has a
daughter here still who is the spit and image of her. As I say, we were not in
the business of having tens of thousands of pets. No-one is, excepting the
Government. I’d guess the Government has upwards of a million pets: folks who
won’t ever pay their way and never have. There would be no room for such folks
(if they were sheep) in our pastures. These folks are just ‘pet people’. Now,
if YOU want to have pets, YOU feed them and care for them. I won’t. Nor can you
(or they) expect anyone else to. Why, there are whole groups of people who have
not paid their own way for generations, as much as 200 years! This is just poor
husbandry. They MUST be put out to fend for themselves. We can’t be affording a
nation of ‘pets’. Enough is more than enough! I have been up in the frost,
outdoors in all weathers, closer to 300 than 200 days per year etc for over
half a century. I have NEVER earned (pa) what yesterday was absurdly declared
‘the minimum wage’ – what an incredible impediment to employment THAT is. But I
have not wasted my money. I AM eligible for an aged pension, but I would not
take it if it was forced on me; I will continue to live on my own resources. I
have supported myself for nearly sixty years and I am not about to start
bludging on my fellow Australians NOW. A dozen or so more (mainly food) trees
went in today; we implemented a new potato (and Jerusalem artichoke) patch;
Della’s broad beans are up; peas, carrots,
07/06/2014: Watched Attenborough’s programme about bugs: he showcased a brilliant iridescent wasp which preyed on cockroaches (a critter I haven’t much sympathy for anyhow – and Della completely loathes them). HOWEVER, this wasp was able to paralyse the cockroach and lay its egg in it. The larvae hatched and took ten days to eat the cockroach alive. NOW, we need a LARGER version of such a wasp for such persons, as Adrian Bayley, Julian Knight…Genetic Modification is not necessarily such a bad thing!
07/06/2014: ‘Coming to a town near you soon’ I would think. I am gratified that these ‘criminals’ would so ingeniously and intrepidly desecrate those lovely bird and bat shredding wind generators: http://www.france24.com/en/20140528-france-metal-organised-thefts-wind-turbines-copper/
06/06/2014: Remember how Jesus used to say it was harder for a rich man to get to ‘heaven’ than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, so the rich should give their money to the poor, was his notion (THAT never happened!); the rich could always hang onto their cash if they didn’t give two hoots about an after life! Socialists came along and decided it would be a good idea to LEGISLATE what Christ only suggested would be an important moral principle, even though THEY (correctly in my opinion, but that is another matter) did not believe in God or Heaven at all! – which just shows how corrupt they are really – and that most are descended somehow from wacko religos! Presumably such (legislated) conduct would somehow create some sort of ‘heaven on earth’ such as we saw for over 70 years in all the communist countries. I listened to Jenny Macklin yesterday burbling on in Parliament about how ‘The Poor’ would have smaller superannuation savings than ‘The Rich’ and how this was unfair, so the taxpayers should help out. ‘The Poor’ though have had just the same opportunities in life as everyone else, and presumably have had ‘less’ money ALL their lives, so WHY we should change this situation in their retirement after they spent a lifetime of wasting their money is beyond me! Interestingly Macklin was the staffer who had Howes introduce the Medicare co-payment under the Hawke Govt (at almost the same inflation adjusted value as Abbot’s - ‘Plus ca change’!)
06/06/2014:
Food faddists take note: the ‘truth’ about Halal: ‘2 percent of
06/06/2014: Good news: 86.96% of voters say they would rather the ABC chop Q&A than Peppa Pig! The ABC employs 4,664 FTE people at a cost of $477,499,000, or at an average cost of $102,380 per person…So how many people will lose their jobs at their ABC if Mark Scott only cuts jobs? Using the above figures of $102,380 and $8,875,000 we end up with 87 people being downsized, or 1.87% of the “workforce”. Until recently, Fairfax [the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, the Australian Financial Review and the Australian] employed around 1500 journalists. Today that number is closer to 1000. Within two years it could be as few as 500. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/television/future-of-peppa-pig-on-abc-in-doubt/story-fni0cc2b-1226934648643
05/06/2014: Neanderthal language: At the Max Planck Institute they have been trying to work out whether there are any language artefacts from the Neanderthals, and they have found ONE! And…it is the apostrophe ‘s’ for possession which so many folk (who presumably are not in any way descended from them) cannot spell! It is delightful to think of those large hairy folks roaming round saying, ‘Zzzz, Zzzz, Zzzzz’ like so many Daleks!: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00397/full
05/06/2014: ‘Welfare benefit’. People always use this wonderful example of REPETITION together, but each (separately) is (at best) oxymoron. Together, I don’t really know WHAT to call them: Is the plural ‘oxymorose’? OE has the first (as ME) from ‘well’ (noun) and ‘fare’ (verb) = @ ‘Make well’ (?) and the second (again ME) as something like ‘good’ + ‘do’. But does such CHARITY ever have this effect? Does GIVING people things MAKE them GOOD (or better)? EARNING things makes people ‘better’ – it goes without saying really, but UNEARNED ‘rewards’ only encourage sloth and false expectations! It is all just so unnecessary too now we have ‘well-being’ and ‘well-coming’, etc. You figure it out!
05/06/2014: ABC figures show there are 36 employees paid more than $300,000, 50 earning more than $270,000 and, in total, 226 employees are on a salary of more than $180,000 a year. Mark Scott is on $805,000, TWICE what the Prime Minister earns! BUT there are NO savings to be made? Let’s just see how much you would have if you paid all these folks a MERE $100,000 (and assuming the 36 ‘only’ earned $300K!) WHY that’s $33.78 MILLION right there! Astonishing the pigs who come to YOUR trough! Just how much money anyway should we throw at a thoroughly corrupt public broadcaster which seems to see its only duty to be as a polemicist for the Labor Party and the Greens?
04/06/2014: I have been gathering some of my hiking/hunting observations together and posting them on a new website (http://www.finnsheep.com/Ultralight%20Hiking.htm) which joins my blog (http://www.finnsheep.com/Steve%27s%20Blog.htm) on our sheep website (http://www.finnsheep.com/index.html) All three sites still need a lot more work, but perhaps you will find something interesting there.
04/06/2014: Never mind addictive drugs, they should ban statins – these things are keeping people alive for years and years!
04/06/2014: Great ideas occur about 4:00am. Fortunately for most of us, they are gone by the time we wake up!
04/06/2014: Tradesmen: Socrates was a stonemason; Jesus was a carpenter. At least one of them should have stuck to his trade. There are fewer arguments about furniture!
03/06/2014: It is unfortunate that more folk no longer read the Classics. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are perhaps mainly moral allegories on the virtue of hospitality, and the punishment which ought to befall an unworthy ‘guest’ Paris stole Menelaus’ wife, Helen (thus provoking the Trojan War), as you might remember from Brad Pitt’s ‘Troy’; his fate was to be dragged around Troy behind Achilles’ chariot, then his body was thrown on a dunghill to be devoured by wild dogs, etc. Odysseus similarly punished the unwanted (suitor) guests who had been preying on his wife Penelope with violent and sudden death. And a right good thing too! We have had many unpleasant ‘guests’ in our country who perhaps ought to read more Homer – or be treated to his ‘remedies’!
03/06/2014: Quote of the week: Tim Blair: ‘Bad news for the Greens: Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland found an association between cynical distrust — which researchers described in the study as “the belief that others are mainly motivated by selfish concerns” – and an increased risk of developing dementia.’
03/06/2014: A STRANGE thing has been happening (the last 20 millennia or so) and, though we may have scarcely noticed, the size of the human brain has been SHRINKING and now comprises less than 90% of its once glorious bulk. The same brain shrinking has occurred in domesticated animals (such as dogs) which makes one think that there is something about the Neolithic ‘revolution’ which is causing this. Fortunately now that we have elastic-sided boots we do not have to look forward to a time when we are too stupid even to be able to tie our own bootlaces! One wonders whether sex selection could be a cause. A memorable passage in J Diamond’s ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’ ‘quotes a man from the New Guinea Highlands on the great beauty of the local women, with their tight curly black hair, their eyes very close together and their noses spread across their faces. He contrasts them to the ugly Western women, with their hair like dead grass, their eyes wide apart like pigs and their axe-blade noses.’ ‘Mr/s Big Head’ is maybe just not so attractive as s/he once was. Perhaps all we have to look forward to is a world of cutesy pin-heads drooling over their X-boxes – or has this already happened?
02/06/2014: Della: A perfect Sunday! I couldn't have had a better day: 4 hours at the shop, a couple of hours (finally found) setting up and playing with my new Mother's Day toy (vintage Bernina sewing machine), then a drive down to the coast and a couple of hours walking with the dogs along the George Bass Coastal Walk (near Kilcunda). The weather was warm and dry (albeit overcast) and the only regret was that there was insufficient light to walk further. Spot was dazzled by the feel of running on sand, and did many excited high speed circuits just for the hell of it! How lovely it is to see the pure joy of a young dog! Tiny enjoyed herself too, but in a more dignified manner! Finally we topped it off with a splendid meal at McCartins Hotel in Leongatha (the Seniors' menu is to be recommended, if you qualify!). Spot and Tiny had to wait longer for their left-over store pies when they got home, but they opined that they, too, were delicious!
02/06/2014:
Spent a couple of pleasant hours yesterday (as Della
says) walking on the George Bass Coastal Walk http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/352803/Park-note-George-Bass-Coastal-Walk.pdf This can be combined with the Bass Coast Rail Trail http://www.railtrails.org.au/trail-descriptions/victoria/gippsland?view=trail&id=203
to make a walk from @ San Remo to Wonthaggi. It would be nice if a little more
work/instruction could be implemented to take it all the way to Wilsons Prom.
For example, there is no real problem with walking from Point Smyth Reserve (
Spot
02/06/2014: Unable to meet the intellectual challenge, the Left has apparently launched ‘denial of service’ attacks on ALL Oz’s conservative bloggers the last couple of mornings…Alas, I have had nothing to read but commie bullshit, or my own maunderings…
02/06/2014: I am always ASTONISHED that people feel that THIS is a valid riposte: ‘It is a matter of opinion,’ or ‘That is just YOUR opinion’ & etc. Listen up, folks, there ARE no matters of opinion; ONLY matters of fact…EVERYTHING is either accessible to rigorous TESTING as to whether it is true or NOT. If it is NOT, then it is simply gibberish, and not worth saying, let alone repeating! ALL the world’s BELIEFS are like this, ie provable/falsifiable or NONSENSE. Think: God, after life, socialism, Tim-Tams, etc, etc. Actually that LAST doesn’t fit the pattern; as Horace remarked ‘De gustibus non est disputandum’ ie ‘In matters of taste, there can be no disputes’.
02/06/2014: I am really over all the tasteless caricatures, eg of Tony Abbott (and his daughters, no less) posted everywhere on Facebook, etc – and by folks who SHOULD have some intelligence, commenting that they ‘laughed all day’ or etc at them. These visual doggerels are not even funny, folks. If you have something intelligent to say about our political leaders, please SAY it. Don’t re-post crappy immature photo shopped snaps of people with penis heads & etc. Everyone’s appearance leaves something to be desired, (What? Even MINE?) but it is their IDEAS which are the main game – and even more important, their COSTINGS! My goodness, I’m sure we had all noticed the striking similarity between Ms Gillard and the ‘Wicked Witch of the West’ from ‘Oz’, or between Mr Shorten and Herman Munster, (Mr Howard was certainly no film star either – and nor is Mr Abbott – O, those simian arms, and THAT gait, but we can’t all be film stars!) but it is what such folks DO and SAY which is important – in the latter context, you folk might give some thought to the evidence being presented at the Royal Commission into Union Corruption, and NOTE that your idols appear to be outstanding CROOKS!
02/06/2014: Touchy-feely kiss the earth ‘nature lovers’ are always posting photos of some scrap of bush they want ‘saved,’ but I misdoubt any of them has spent a fraction of the time actually IN the wilds that I have. Every year for at least the last 30 years I have walked AT LEAST 1,000km/year through our wild places (and probably driven 5-10,000km); I have slept out on the ground probably 6-8 weeks in toto every year, (meaning that I have literally spent YEARS of my life LIVING in the wild places!) I am appalled at the consequences of the MISMANAGEMENT THEY advocate, especially the vast areas utterly destroyed by wildfires, destruction which COULD have been prevented but for their mismanagement: vast contiguous areas not been ‘locked up’, their (fire) access tracks closed; the absence of forestry clearing, grazing, mining, tourist facilities, fuel reduction burns etc meaning that there was NO refuge left for creatures to escape a horrible death from wild fires. Such management is NOT conservation; it is EVIL GREENIE MADNESS!
01/06/2014:
There is a story going around on the net about a chap who has (so far)
succeeded in shooting 13 LIONS (or elephants; anyway the article is always
accompanied by a photo of him with various grisly remains!) And GOOD FOR HIM!
Alas, we cannot ALL have the opportunity to bag innumerable elephants, pandas,
platypodes, blue whales, etc - though I am sure we have all read all Teddy
Roosevelt’s hunting books, etc but, here is an interesting book about a chap
who satisfied his venality with the pursuit of RATS, ‘Tales of a Rat-Hunting
Man’ (by Brian Plummer – I see he wrote many other fascinating books too, and
was, like me a devotee of the Jack Russell terrier. Well DONE, Brian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Plummer)
This fascinating adventure story contains many riveting accounts of his pursuit
of the wily rodent through the maggot factories and rubbish tips of
01/06/2014: Never short of something to worry about…I am worrying this morning about what to do when our robot vacuum cleaner, Alexander (Beetle) DIES. He has been SUCH a faithful servant and cheerful little chap I cannot bear the thought of his ending in landfill, or (worse still) being RECYCLED once his bright red LED eyes grow dim! Egad! There needs to be a proper cemetery (and appropriate ceremonies) for tastefully memorialising our fallen automata, simulacra, doppelgangers, cyborgs and such…
01/06/2014:
AGAIN I note, ‘we have TWO MILLION public servants
in
31/05/2014: Our ‘team’ has ‘captured’ the spacecraft! Isn’t this just great? http://spacecollege.org/isee3/
31/05/2014:
Great ad on the radio this morning, ‘The over-50s
lifestyle you’ve ALWAYS wanted.’ Hard to believe really, but there you
go…apparently these are all being snapped up, so you’d better be quick! In
other great news
31/05/2014: ‘Beerenomics’: Every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill comes to $100. They pay their bill the way progressive taxes work. The poorest four pay nothing. The fifth pays $1. The sixth $3. The seventh $7. The eighth $12. The ninth $18. The tenth man (the richest) pays $59. The ten men are content, until the bar owner says he wants to reward their custom by reducing their bill by $20. How will they divide the $20 windfall so everyone gets a fair share? The owner suggests reducing each man’s bill by a higher percentage the poorer he is, to follow the principle of the tax system. So the fifth man, like the first four, now pays nothing (100% saving). The sixth pays $2 (33% saving). The seventh $5 (28% saving). The eighth $9 (25% saving). The ninth $14 (22% saving). And the tenth now pays $49 (16% saving). Each of the six is better off and the first four still get free beer. But outside the bar they compare their savings. “I only got a dollar,” says the sixth man. He points at the tenth man, “but he got $10!” The others agree. “Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2?” yells the seventh man. “We didn’t get anything at all,” yell the first four. “This new tax system exploits the poor!” So they beat up the tenth man. The next night he doesn’t show up at the bar so the other nine drink without him. But when it comes time to pay the bill, they discover they don’t have enough money between them to pay even half! Plus ca change, C’est la vie, etc!
31/05/2014: I have spoken about ‘meliorism’ here before (17/03/2014), but really, SOMETHING needs to be DONE. DO click the link to see just how 'stuffed' we ARE: http://www.australiandebtclock.com.au/
30/05/2014: Clancy: One great thing about camping out in an open shelter (such as I posted about 27 May) you have this all your own: ‘And at night the wond’rous glory of the everlasting stars.’ Here is the whole poem, just in case you have forgotten it, or were so MUCH poorer, and never learned it: Clancy of the Overflow (Banjo Paterson)
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge,
sent to where I met him down the
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just ‘on spec’, addressed as follows, ‘Clancy, of The Overflow’.
And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)
’Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
‘Clancy’s
gone to
In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving ‘down the Cooper’ where the Western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover’s life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.
And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wond’rous glory of the everlasting stars.
I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all
And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the ‘buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.
And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.
And I somehow rather fancy that I’d like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal —
But I doubt he’d suit the office, Clancy, of ‘The Overflow’.”
PS: I know I wouldn’t!
30/05/2014: MH370: Seems like I was right after all and the ‘pings’ weren’t from the plane. When are they going to figure there was something ‘wrong’ with the ‘handshakes’ too? Do we (yet) have the correct amount of FUEL for the plane? What if the Inmarsat calculations are wrong too? A fine way to spend 50 million bucks! Maybe I should be in charge after all?
30/05/2014: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity’ (Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities): http://www.theage.com.au/comment/we-live-in-the-best-of-times-so-dont-buy-the-media-gloom-20131230-302wn.html & http://www.city-journal.org/2014/bc0523yf.html
29/05/2014: THIS is simply the world’s greatest machete. If you don’t already own one, you MUST. It will make easy work even of removing blackberries: http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-7860-Brush-Axe/dp/B000F99IEU/ref=pd_sim_hi_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0FZ0KWXB63ZCG1ZHF906 I have the Gerber version (http://www.amazon.com/Gerber-31-000083-Gator-Brush-Trimmer/dp/B0025VKMI2) which is probably much the same.
29/05/2014:
In case you had not noticed: UKIP took first place
in the recent national poll in the
29/05/2014:
UNFAIR TO PIGEONS perhaps, but I liked Alan Jones’ comment on 2GB this morning
that arguing with a Leftist was like trying to play chess with a pigeon who
just knocks over all the pieces, makes lots of meaningless noises, craps on the
board and then struts around as if it had won! I think it would be a good idea
if leftists tried to get a more balanced perspective by harkening to some of
the other media, instead of trying to subsist on a diet of commie/greenie pap
from the ABC/Fairfax. I thought Tony came over very articulately and reasonably
this morning in his explanation of why the budget is GROWING more slowly than
the left might like (even though they refuse to identify where the money could
come from to make it different!) Alan Jones IS a weird chap: on the one hand
buttonholing Tony to somehow do a socialist deal to make gas cheaper, as the
price is driving many of our industries overseas (eg Incitec), but also
insisting there be no onshore drilling eg for coal seam gas (or fracking). The
cheaper price of gas which he (correctly) identified for making
28/05/2014: Just in case you were wondering why I am always slipping off to NZ to look for these big guys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose
28/05/2014: I notice the author(s) of the wikipedia article continually want to comment on the ‘unexplained decline’ of moose numbers, perhaps so they can later blame it on that universal bogey, ‘climate change’, yet the self-same article mentions numerous instances of ‘unexplained increases’ in moose numbers in various (often Southern) areas. In some areas of the US ‘Lyme Disease’ has become quite a problem amongst deer - and hikers – I have met a number of young people who have contracted the dreadful thing – previously mainly a problem amongst C19th rat-catchers! In the Scandinavian countries (especially) moose numbers have been boosted enormously by sensible deer management (for hunting!)
28/05/2014: Shock! Horror! Kevin Andrews: ‘Young unemployed people facing the prospect of receiving no dole for six months should simply take a job they do not really want or do a course.’ The ‘elephant’ in this story is that they will be obliged to work (at designated centres) for 16 hours per week. If anyone does not think this will be good experience for them, I think you should think again!
28/05/2014: The Written Breathalyser:
28/05/2014: Remember the morning of 8th April: Labor’s vote fell to 21.8% in the WA Senate election! Still far too BIG, I think, BUT…once the Government manages to SELL the Budget, AND folk realise that it is NOT the end of the world (probably not even the end of ‘The Age of Entitlement’), we can expect to see a return to more ‘normal’ poll results.
27/05/2014: Now THIS really IS BIG news: the Universe may not be expanding AT ALL. Get set for a heap of wacko metaphysical ‘theories’ about this in time to come (Welcome BACK Fred Hoyle?): http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-universe-not-expanding-01940.html
27/05/2014:
Matt intent: We always camp in an open shelter
(something like this) with an open fire out the front. SO warm and cozy even on
cold,wet days. This shelter is very easy to make. It consists of a
27/05/2014: Our kitchen sink: the last few days. Matt and I jut spent four days hiking/hunting a day’s walk away from the car in the Wonnangatta-Moroka NP. Never have competition for who does the washing up at home, but this setting/plumbing makes a difference I guess…
23/05/2014: Parrot? http://jezebel.com/your-mind-will-be-blown-when-you-realize-this-isnt-a-p-1544627628
23/05/2014: Spot on, Tim Blair: ‘Take a look at all of these signs from last weekend’s complain-about-everything rallies and you’ll barely see any mention of climate. Why, it’s almost as though the protesters are suddenly more worried about other people’s money being taken away from them than they are about the planet’s very survival.’ http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/warming_over/
23/05/2014: Personally, I think the students who assaulted Julie Bishop and Sophie Mirabella, (and the police who were just doing their job) should be SENT DOWN from University. Surely people who have not learned the rudiments of civilised discourse (ie to politely listen to the views of others and if you disagree with them offer your alternative well-argued position) do not deserve a place in our institutes of ‘higher learning’. Again, if our Unis have merely turned into breeding grounds for such thuggery, a much more extensive razor gang needs to be put through them!
22/05/2014: NO slippery slope, YOU say. I’m sure this is just the beginning, and soon we will have to accept folks ‘marrying’ their horses, dogs and vacuum cleaners! ‘Brynne’ also appears suspiciously ‘Adam’s Appled’ to me: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2611020/Meet-worlds-married-lesbian-threesome-baby-make-four-July.html#ixzz2zkX9A2l1
22/05/2014: Ain’t it so: ‘…postmodern progressive nihilism. The perfect is the enemy of the good. If we cannot meet an impossible standard, we should abandon that standard — even if we have no alternative save dissipation.’ http://ricochet.com/the-knightly-ideal/
22/05/2014: Einstein WOULD be pleased: http://www.sciencecodex.com/scientists_discover_how_to_turn_light_into_matter_after_80year_quest-133851
21/05/2014: ABSOLUTELY: Paul Sheehan: ‘We have a (PM) who will sacrifice his career for the good of the country. We have an Opposition leader who will sacrifice his country for his career.’ Our PM: ‘If any of you have ever had a mortgage, if any of you have ever had a credit card debt: if you are borrowing to pay the interest on the borrowings, you are stuffed.’ Not clear enough for YOU, yet?
21/05/2014:
There are nearly TWO MILLION public servants in
21/05/2014: The climate fascists are still out in force: Just a few days ago, THIS was the big news amongst the ‘climate community’ (http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/05/08/Leading-climate-scientist-defects-no-longer-believes-in-the-consensus ). This morning it is THIS: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/05/14/shameless-climate-mccarthyism-on-full-display-scientist-forced-to-resign/
20/05/2014: The opinion polls this morning reveal TWO things: 1. The coalition overdid their own hype that the budget was ‘tough’ when it was in fact expansionary, 2. Voters refuse to get over being spoiled darlings. Under the projections of this budget the Government’s share of GDP continues to rise (reaching very close to 25% at the end of the 3-year projection), and Government debt also continues to rise (by 50%! To $300+ BILLION), so that only a simpleton could find this budget to be a fiscally conservative one. What people simply REFUSE to get their heads around is that Labor and the Greens LEGISLATED (mostly in last year’s autumn session) for a massive EXPANSION in budget outlays to occur in future financial years (when they would no longer be in power) so that debt would have risen from @ $200 to nearly $700 BILLION at the end of @ 3 years. Debt would have risen because none of the spending was funded by increased revenue measures (ie taxation). The TWO debates we should be having (instead of ‘Hate Tony Abbott!’) are: 1. Do we want an expansion or a contraction of Government (the people SEEMED to vote for a contraction at the last election. Now it seems they have may changed their minds) and 2. If we do, do we want it funded by increased taxation or by increased debt. (The first solution means WE pay for it ourselves; the second means we expect someone else to, ie our children! The main problem with expecting our children to is that SO many people refused to HAVE children, there are not going to be enough of them to fund such levels of debt).
20/05/2014:
What both major parties have been trying to sell us
for years (but Labor moreso) is the idea of debt discounting (such as has been
employed by many retailers, (eg Harvey Norman). If Government spends more than
it has, it APPEARS we get $1 worth of spending by only shelling out eg 50
cents, because 50 cents worth of spending is discounted’ as debt which we can
pay off at some indeterminate time in the future (whilst ignoring the cost of
the interest bill, and whether we will have the capacity to pay in the future).
So, half of the ‘goodies’ the Government is selling us, we are putting on hire
purchase with no defined payment schedule or final settlement date. This is
what Europe (think, particularly
20/05/2014: Organic food will DESTROY the Earth: THIS is the problem with organic agriculture: it needs AT LEAST 25% more land per unit produced (= more forest loss), more water, produces more polluting run-off, etc, etc. You have to get your heads around this: ORGANIC IS BAD: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304431104579550002888434432
19/05/2014: Jupiter’s giant red spot has been shrinking. (PS: I’m sure they will): http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/05/16/somehow-im-sure-somebody-will-figure-out-a-way-to-blame-climate-change-for-this/#more-109375
![hs-2014-24-a-web_print[1]](2014%20Blog_files/image713.jpg)
19/05/2014: This is a REALLY great article; to paraphrase: ‘(Leftists) have a new word for what normal people call “success”. They call it “privilege,” as if a happy, prosperous life is the result of some magic process…We can’t have the (Australian) people thinking that hard work leads to success; people might start asking why (Labor) constituencies don’t just work harder instead of demanding more money from those who actually produce something…What they say is privilege is what we say is a reward for doing more with our lives than waiting for Uncle Sucker to refill our EBT cards. “Privilege” is a result of not being a human sloth, of not doing drugs, of not having kids we can’t afford them, and of not living our lives as a practical exercise in chaos theory.’ http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/we-cant-have-american-people-thinking.html
19/05/2014: Attention grabber: ‘I actually missed my stop on the train this morning because I was engrossed in the chapter about duck sex.’ http://www.alternet.org/sex-amp-relationships/duck-vaginas-bumblebee-sex-amazingly-overlooked-science-genitals
18/05/2014: This looks the go; need to get my hands on a bucketful: http://www.gizmag.com/gdf11-protein-aging-mice-harvard/31929/
18/05/2014: THE RIGHT STUFF: ‘With the number of applicants vying for an opportunity to take part in a one-way mission to Mars now down to just over 700, organizers of the Mars One project are now focusing on selecting the perfect mix of individuals who have the physical and mental capacity to live on the red planet’: http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/the-new-space-pioneers-what-does-it-take-to-live-on-mars-1.1816852
18/05/2014: So, my $100 helped: something to look forward to on my birthday; if all goes well ‘the team’ will reboot ISEE-3 and buzz the moon with it on 10 August @50km altitude! Thanks to our donations the project is, ‘GO!’ http://www.rockethub.com/42228
18/05/2014:
Shorten’s budget reply: all rhetoric without
numbers. THIS is pathetic: Labor will block $18 BILLION of revenue measures
without ANY idea WHERE THE MONEY IS COMING FROM - which is how we got into this
mess in the first place. Just to jog your memory, it went like this: the last
Howard budget: 300 billion IN, 280 billion OUT, surplus: 20 billion (plus $60
billion in the ‘Future Fund’ and ZERO Government debt). Gillard’s last budget:
375 billion in, 412 billion out, deficit $37 billion = total projected of all
six Labor years $670 billion DEBT! For SIX STRAIGHT YEARS they spent $2 billion
PER WEEK more than we earned. Shorten thinks this should CONTINUE (what, until
we are bankrupt, not too far in the future?) Hockey’s ‘horror’ budget will only
pay off HALF of Labor’s debt, (ie only $300 billion in five years) when the
budget will finally NEARLY be in surplus. Arthur Fadden in 1951 tackled a Labor
disaster of similar proportions with a truly horror budget which brought the
ledger back into the black in ONE year. So that
17/05/2014: MH370: Maybe my RF (radio frequency) understanding leaves something to be desired, BUT black boxes emit at 37.5 Mhz. Two of the ‘pings’ received by Ocean Shield were @ 27Mhz and two at 33Mhz. Huh? Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t that MEAN none of them was from a black box? $45 MILLION so far, a further $45 MILLION in the budget; a couple of hospitals there! Over to you, Angus… http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/552468/20140514/mh370-missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-pings.htm
17/05/2014: I am so tired of hearing spoiled people (eg on Facebook) lament that they haven't been GIVEN enough: after all, they started (usually) with a pair of hands, a back, a brain; with such excellent tools they could make of themselves absolutely ANYTHING they wanted. If they did, or if they did not: it is down to THEM, not to someone or anything else...Maybe I’m just plain cruel, but it seems to me that if you just keep GIVING people free stuff, they will NEVER learn to stand on their own two feet and take responsibility for their own lives. AND if THEY won’t, WHY should anyone ELSE?
17/05/2014: To those who deny the poor can triumph over their lot: I have known many such as you describe, who have started life hard, and I have known many such who have triumphed OVER their adversity. Is there to be NOTHING in your catechism that recognises good character and true nobility? Is ALL you can see a person's environment crippling them? Our culture and our legal system have for centuries recognised human worth and responsibility. This Marxist prattle you espouse which DICTATES the primacy of environment is obscene heresy; it allows NOTHING for human choice or human worth. It is complete NONSENSE and WICKEDNESS. For over two centuries all the world’s great religions and ethical systems have asserted (as I do here) the primacy of the individual’s ‘free will’. I am somewhat astonished (as an atheist) to be lecturing a Christian on the concept of ‘free will’ and personal redemption. The Marxists challenged it with their ‘environmentalism,’ claiming by this that there WERE no qualities, only relations, and so debasing all action to pure mechanism (much as Descartes was able to believe that the horrid squealing of the tortured dogs he was dissecting live were purely mechanical - as dogs did not have souls! It is THIS very distinction which made communism ‘ungodly’. Studies in animal intelligence and the evolution of intelligence generally, are now telling us that there is a continuity of intelligence in all animate life (even plants!) and that the dogs who eat the chocolate (only when their owner is out) are CHOOSING to be naughty. It has long been thought that the most important human qualities come out in extremis, eg in wars or in the vile Nazi, Soviet and other Left-wing ‘death camps’. We have forever awarded the highest accolades for bravery to such circumstances when the consequences of free will are so DIRE. But the poor today in Western countries (who might be ‘excused’ free will on account of their ‘environment’, you say) are richer by far that even the excesses of Louis 14, the so-called ‘Sun King’ with his many palaces and servants. The availability of luxury goods, the bewildering choice and availability to them of food and manufactured goods (the equivalent of employing tens of thousands of servants) makes them so. No-one can rationally argue that the ‘poor’ today live lives of unalleviated poverty which (even if they did) would not excuse them from the exercise of their ‘free will’ to CHOOSE to rise above their beginnings. Do NOT deny ‘choice’; for most of history folk would have recognised instantly THAT is SATAN talking.
16/05/2014:
The mind plays STRANGE tricks: sometimes I feel the past is just like having
moved to Geelong; I feel I could so EASILY travel back to where I came from,
pick up a conversation, or an acquaintance from 20 or 40 years ago, as if I had
just moved across the street, been drinking at a different hotel…something like
that. When I realise it is ALL gone (the past) I have a twinge of regret. The
news of
16/05/2014: TOO many people today have never learned to have pride in themselves. As a consequence we are turning into a nation of beggars whose only sense of pride comes from ever louder demands that someone else, eg ‘the Government’ ‘should’ do something more for them. The ONLY pride many people seem to have is in ‘crying poor’, (THEY are the ‘battlers’, you see) as if it is their ‘right’ that the correct response to this quite pathetic display was to shower them with even more free things. However, the really correct response to all such temper tantrums, is IGNORE them; when they have quietened down advise them to stand on their own two feet and shift for themselves! THESE are the two most important RIGHTS: the right to work (I do NOT mean the ‘right’ to a job); & the right to own private property. All such ‘leaners’ should just GET ON WITH IT!
16/05/2014: Money is always shortest when the kids are growing up. We certainly applied many economy measures to make ends meet when our kids were, so that we could ALSO meet our house repayments. Everyone makes lifestyle choices. Some make bad choices and do not save. For example, these were some of OUR savings: we have driven quite old second-hand cars for over 30 years. Our two current Landrovers are 1995 and 1996 models. The average age of all our many Subarus (average purchase price $300!) was always about that. For all that time I did ALL the maintenance and service work on them. We have always had a vegie garden and an orchard, so that we grew most of our own food. We grew or hunted all our own meat and fish. We always prepared our own food and never ate take-aways; nor did we ever buy soft drinks and other rubbish food. We built our own house (out of earth) driving every nail, sawing every piece of wood ourselves and even making the bricks! (Someday we may even FINISH it! Della certainly hopes so!) We have always done all our own house and property maintenance. We collected and cut all our own wood for home heating. We did not waste money, eg we have not smoked for a generation. We never spent any money on overseas trips or lavish gifts, eg none of our children had a motor-bike until they were old enough to buy one themselves (though they would certainly have LIKED one – AND many other things!) Della has always mended our clothes AND made most of them. She also knits, felts, makes preserves, curtains, furniture coverings etc. Nearly all our furniture is/was second-hand - which we restored. I always made the kids’ school lunches. I baked all our own bread from bulk ingredients. If you shop around (even for the goods you normally buy) substantial savings can be made; eg if you choose to drink, you can always save a lot of money by brewing your own, & etc. When I was growing up the ‘Woman’s Day’ and ‘Women’s Weekly’ were full of useful suggestions for making savings and ‘making do’ for yourself. My mother devoured these suggestions avidly, and (fortunately for me) passed on her frugality, self-reliance and pride in one’s self to me. We catered the children’s weddings, saving thousands of dollars there, which could better go towards a house deposit for them. As soon as the kids were earning their own money (18-19) they chose to buy their own houses which are mostly paid off now, as they have saved their money too. Renting is always expensive in the long run, and there is no asset to leave one’s children at the end of it, or anywhere one can afford to live when one is too old to work, which is why the Government has always encouraged it. We have looked into buying rental accommodation and found that we could not (possibly) make a profit out of it, which is why the rental market is so tight. It is a really good idea to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to BUY one’s own house, as it is in one’s best interest in the long run. It is always POSSIBLE to do so, even if it may be difficult. It was just as difficult for the people who came before us, our parents etc, if not more so. A home owner may well have to start out very small (even with a share in a house) and work their way up. Most people would refuse to LIVE in our first house (or probably our second or third too!) It may be necessary to buy somewhere (other than where one would prefer to live) so that one can afford to do so. We have lived most of our lives somewhere other than where we would have preferred to live, but in the long run we prefer to live here NOW– which certainly wasn’t our first, or even third choice. Like Edith Piaf, ‘I Regret Nothing’!
16/05/2014: Vale: David Armstrong: A VERY great TEACHER (of mine, and SO many others) and courageous man. I spent many pleasant hours with him, in his rooms (or mine) and in the quad (under the tree which remains even when no-one is there to see, & etc) at Sydney Uni in the 1970s. I remember watching (with him) a peculiar 'transit' of Venus which appeared to traverse the crescent of the moon under that tree, about 1973. It seems a long while ago now – and it IS. I AM sorry I did not live up to his estimation of me. We have only ONE life, and I chose this one. I will MISS HIM, as I miss our mutual friend ‘Sandy’ Anderson (son of John), with whom I spent many pleasant hours at Newcastle Uni in the 1960s; gone these many years now. Philosophy (& many other things) are much poorer with their passing: http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2014/05/david-armstrong-great-philosopher-great-man/
16/05/2014: Della: A great philosopher and teacher indeed! His lectures at Sydney Uni stand out in my memory as invariably insightful, clear and captivating. And I am so pleased to read of the outcome of that turbulent time which coincided with my undergraduate years when the marxists and feminists threatened the freedom of the Philosophy department. His leadership at that time was strong, but the opponents of free thought were a huge force.
16/05/2014: Pity we did/do not have more intellectual leaders like him. The leftist rabble were ultimately defeated in the Philosophy Department (and rational argument prevailed)...but in the wider world, the loonies are STILL ascendant!
15/05/2014: It's over 20 years since Keating introduced compulsory superannuation. The intention then was that THIS is what people would retire on in the future (now). Still not enough people have SAVED enough. THAT is the problem with aged pensions. Not anything ANY Government has done since. People who are 40 now will have had 40 years to save (in their super accounts) for their retirement (at age 65 in 2034). Why aren't they doing so? What I mean is that 20 years ago you started having Keating's compulsory superannuation so that by the time you are 60, having worked for 40 years you should have put away at least 10% of your salary all that time which ought to be getting pretty close (depending on the fund's results) to provide for retirement at 65 - instead of needing the old age pension. You can also add to the 10% (as much as you like) and gain a huge reduction in the tax you pay. So saving for retirement has been encouraged (even subsidised) for a long while. The average 40 year old should have saved enough by the time they are 65 to not need anything from the government. Remember also, this was originally a Keating (Labor) government initiative we are discussing here.
15/05/2014: All my kids own houses because I advised them to go get the First Home Owners Grant and a bank loan and buy a house they could afford, and they followed that advice. That is not 'good luck'. Similarly Paul Keating's superannuation reforms are not 'good luck', but 'good policy'. By making it not just possible but compulsory for everyone to have superannuation savings, and by making it desirable for people to add to them, Mr Keating was giving everyone the advice, 'Provide for your own retirement, and you will be better off'. He also saw that people who did so would not be a burden on anyone else, eg taxpayers. Anyone who follows both these pieces of advice (ie buying a house AND investing in superannuation) can have at the end of their working lives as much money in savings as the total amount they have earned during their working life. This is because of: inflation, increases in productivity, compound interest on savings, increases in the value of their house and of businesses on the stock market, plus some small Government assistance such as the First Home Buyers Scheme and the Government’s ‘co-contribution’ to superannuation. This is not 'luck'. It is society setting things up so people can make their own luck. Of course, it does depend on people taking advantage of these opportunities that society offers. At the moment many people are cashing out their superannuation and spending it, THEN coming back and applying for a pension. Society (ie taxpayers) cannot afford people to 'double-dip' like this. If people actually squander their money, that is no reason for their mates to dig into their pockets to help them out. If they CHOSE to do it, that is one thing, if they are COMPELLED to do it (help out), that is another. Neither do I like to see politicians helping themselves to an over-large share of the public's money and then turning around and saying to people, 'You will have to work more years until you are eligible to live on your own superannuation savings'. Mr Keating set that age at 55. He thought that if you had saved enough by age 55 to live on for the rest of your life, you should be able to. If you had not, you would have to work on. This seems quite fair to me. I will be 65 this year, and I intend to have a little fun with what money we have got while I am able. I am NOT eligible for the Old Age Pension, and I would not take such ‘charity’ even if I was. I don’t BELIEVE in charity, whether it is called ‘welfare’, ‘benefit’, ‘entitlement’ or what! I recently spent ten days' hiking in Fiordland in NZ. I am hoping for quite a few more such adventures.
15/05/2014:
Something in the regretful tone of the line’ The Sea of Faith was once too at
the full’ from Mathew Arnold’s ‘
14/05/2014: The politics of the possible: I KNOW what with all the heartfelt shrieks of the Left and their dependents ie, ‘How dare you take my hand out of your pocket?’ it MAY not be possible to return the budget to surplus in ONE year (though, ABOLISH CANBERRA altogether might be a GOOD START!), but Hockey has not abolished the deficit in FIVE years, so the Government cuts are NOWHERE NEAR savage enough! The country really has been in crisis for a LONG TIME. The ‘Age of Entitlement’ should never have begun, and MUST END NOW, before it is simply TOO LATE for our country, and we speed down the ‘Argentine (and Greek) Paths’ to financial ruin! CEASE your rending and gnashing of teeth peoples, prepare to take a little pain, a little sacrifice for the good of your country…even, (dare I say it?) STAND ON YOUR OWN TWO FEET! http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/budget-2014/joe-hockeys-long-path-back-to-budget-surplus/story-fnmbxr2t-1226916438784
14/05/2014:
'Have you ever done anything of particular merit?' St. Peter asked the cowboy.
'Well, I can think of one thing,' the cowboy offered. 'On a trip to the
14/05/2014: Environmentalists have apparently decided they WANT to save the small pox virus. Presumably they want to engineer it to make a deadly plague to reduce the human race by the 90% they would like it down (to save the planet, dearies!). If you agree, PLEASE vote Green!
14/05/2014: Well, I HAD thought there was something in all this food prescription/proscription – and had eaten my fruit and vegies just like my mother told me, even though I liked them – but evidently it was all bunkum: http://voices.yahoo.com/study-finds-eating-fruits-vegetables-does-5836598.html & http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/22/science/an-apple-a-day-and-other-myths.html?smid=pl-share&_r=2
13/05/2014: After Labor’s big spend during Chifley’s years, Treasurer Fadden had to bring in a truly horror budget in 1951. In today’s terms it would pay off the ENTIRE deficit in ONE year, so a VAST slash and burn of public servants and cosy entitlements to make Hockey’s budget look quite gentle. Back then Australians (after the sacrifice of the war years and the depression) could take it on the chin. THEY understood that ALL that Government is, is their mate’s pockets. Let’s hope Australians today can rise to the challenge of no longer bludging on their mates and stand on their own two feet instead!
13/05/2014: Blewitt’s biggest bombshell yesterday: he admits handing over cash to pay for renovations on Ju-Liar’s home. There will be other witnesses who swear the same. If you benefit from a fraud (or create an instrument to perpetrate a fraud) YOU are guilty of the fraud. She WILL go down!
13/05/2014: 2007: The past through tomorrow (and STILL we wait): http://www.itnews.com.au/%28S%28tgobyy55fuhxqpvfjefki445%29%29/News/96153,eftel-plans-to-rollout-vdsl.aspx
13/05/2014: The nanny state has no limits (and no human decency for that matter). God’s blood, kids LOVE cream, one of THE great pleasures of life: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/04/25/Connecticut-Democrat-Lawmakers-Sponsor-Bill-To-Ban-Whole-And-2-Milk-In-State-s-Day-Care-Centers
13/05/2014: The AWU Royal Commission begins examining Ju-Liar's 'crimes' TODAY. You MAY have been in denial about this for over twenty years, BUT the holiday is OVER!
12/05/2014: ‘On what principle is it that, when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?’ Thomas Macaulay 1830
12/05/2014: The NDIS is just GREAT! Definitely NEED MORE of this: Ellen Whinnet: ‘7313 disability support pensioners are living overseas, costing $99.9 million a year.’ http://www.news.com.au/national/youre-paying-100m-for-pensioners-to-live-overseas/story-fncynjr2-1226901383832
12/05/2014: Sometimes ‘property’ isn’t theft: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/04/marxist_publisher_sues_over_property_rights.html
11/05/2014: Paying attention: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/budget-2014-prime-minister-tony-abbott-orders-pay-freeze-for-himself-and-federal-politicians/story-fni0cx12-1226912955745
11/05/2014: Boko Haram KILLED all the boys - and there wasn't a single word of protest from all the selfie wankers about THAT!
11/05/2014: Welcome to the welfare nation: Half of Australia’s families pay no net tax: ‘On average, Australian families will pay $12,935 in income tax this year but receive $9515 in benefits — a net yearly contribution to the public purse of just $3424.’ Seems to me that this is a MASSIVE accountancy and compliance effort to collect a mere $3K! Seems to me if you ABOLISHED tax altogether, all the productivity you ought to be able to get from the folks freed up (in the tax department, accountancy and law firms etc) would just about cut out the inflation you would get by just PRINTING the $3K in the first place. Then again, if you abolished ‘welfare’ altogether you would not even NEED the $3K, and you would have a couple of million OTHER folks doing something worthwhile with their time. WHAT a BOOM there would be! Just how many people are there who are either doing nothing or whose ‘work’ is just silly bloody nonsense: attending meetings, bullying other folks around, standing at corners with cups held out, assessing insurance claims, litigating, etc, etc. Of course, on the other hand, we have the situation where the ‘richest’ 10% of taxpayers pay over half the total income tax pool (which surely must give THEM such a warm inner glow too): http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/welcome-to-the-welfare-nation-half-of-australias-families-pay-no-net-tax/story-fni0xqrc-1226911042149
11/05/2014: After four years of fiscal restraint, the Victorian Government has wound back Labor’s profligacy (always wasted on urgent needs such as employing innumerable public servants to hold MEETINGS!) and has a whopping SURPLUS which they are going to INVEST in a further $27 billion of infrastructure projects, another $45 billion already ‘on the books’ for like investments. Every OTHER state is still ‘in the red’. These guys DESERVE another term, and another, and another…
11/05/2014: Back about 20 years ago (when Keating introduced his superannuation reforms), Vic state teachers became able to retire (albeit on limited benefits) at 55. Previously they had to work till they were 65, when the average age of DEATH of teachers was 67! Almost straight away, the average age of death shot up to 85! If everyone has to work till they are 70, does ANYONE really believe this will INCREASE longevity? BOTH major political parties (NEITHER of which has sorted this out) need to re-work their retirement policies. Of COURSE, I believe people should provide for themselves, and after they have done so, it is THEIR business whether they chose to keep on working (in the conventional sense), write that best-seller, help a charity, take up REALLY dangerous sports (or WHATEVER). The really important reform needed is to get EVERYONE OFF the Government payroll and standing on their own two feet!
10/05/2014:
MH370: I would have thought Angus Houston was a bit smarter than this…but it
could just be like when you’re hunting deer, when every stump begins to
resemble a prize stag! The four ‘pings ‘Ocean Shield ‘heard’ were VERY widely
spaced, more than 20km from each other, MUCH further away from each other than
the maximum detection range we have been told is the case for black box signals
(about 3km - & remember all the problems subs have always had of keeping in
radio communication even with MUCH stronger transmitters); (Sea) water is not
the greatest medium for transmitting radio waves. And remember that the Chinese
recorded pings on the same frequency over 1,000km away! What WAS that? Are we
to believe that the Chinese are stupid dupes, but WE are not? Again, one of
Ocean Shield’s recorded transmissions lasted for over two hours (while the ship
was under way). Even if she was only making two knots (and remembering the
bottom is several kms down) she would have steamed well out of range of a black
box in NO time – which implies that the source of the signal was moving
(parallel to the ship!) – which clearly a black box on a sunken aeroplane could
not be doing! They have now scoured the sea floor central to where the pings
would have had to be coming from if they were to be receivable at the four
positions – and there is nothing! This is NOT a good sign. $45 million DOWN and
another $60 million to go – and the plane may well be far from there, and the
signals they recorded from transmitters on cetaceans! Wonder whether the
Bangladeshis WILL find anything in the
10/05/2014: SO, you want to LIVE FOREVER? OK then, first eschew pizza, next: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/so-you-want-live-forever_788982.html?nopager=1
10/05/2014:
If you have ancestors from
09/05/2014: Quote of the week: ‘Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.’ Susan Ertz.
09/05/2014: You WOULD think the pollies would BEGIN their cost-cutting exercises (on the rest of us) by cutting a few of the costs of THEMSELVES – such as their own VASTLY inflated (numbers and) salaries (which has OUR PM paid much more than the PMs of Britain, Germany, France, etc) and all their other gold trough ‘entitlements’. Whatever nice things you might want to say about Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke et al, do they really deserve huge lifetime pensions, free travel, offices and staff in perpetuity, state funerals (bring it ON), when the dosh can’t be found to treat this kid’s leukaemia, or that old guy’s bad back, & etc, etc? As to having THREE levels of Government, TWO of them having TWO houses, THEN there are THREE levels of public ‘servants’ – if not more!
09/05/2014: We have over 200 ‘Australians’ fighting in Syria who thank us for this, ‘Whoever equips a fighter or takes care of a fighter's family, it's (as) though he has fought himself…Brothers may have the opportunity to equip the fighter and if it's not to equip a fighter it's to look after the family of those brothers we have lost.’ Good work Oz Governments; let’s bring in MORE refugees from Moslem countries, give them lifetime pensions and send them out on jihads: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2618590/Watch-Shocking-footage-shows-British-gunmans-cold-blooded-execution-unarmed-kneeling-prisoner-Syria.html More of the same: http://www.smh.com.au/national/mother-stopped-at-sydney-airport-charged-with-supporting-terrorism-20140505-zr4ks.html#ixzz30n0A39wY
08/05/2014:
WHAT a start to the day: Woke up to that evil lunatic Adam Bandt raving ‘there
IS no budget emergency’ (he should have added the codicil ‘except the one
CAUSED by us!’), & advocating ripping a further 24 billion from the ‘rich’
miners and 11 billion from the ‘rich’ banks INSTEAD (as if the carbon/mining
taxes hadn’t already brought the mining boom to a standstill; evidently if we
don’t have profitable banks we will all be better off too!) BUT the Greens
won’t vote for a ‘levy’ on the ‘richest’ taxpayers (even though that was policy
THEY took to the LAST election only six months ago). At THAT time we did not
know the full extent of the economic destruction the Greens/Labor alliance had
wrought. Instead of a $200 billion deficit, it NOW turns out to be $360
billion, building to $750 billion rapidly if NO attempt is made to turn the
mess around. If we stayed with these evil maniacs we would be a
08/05/2014: Income tax was introduced by the Hughes government as an emergency wartime measure during WW1. The Curtin government assumed sole power to levy income tax in 1942 as an emergency wartime measure. Just TWO disastrous Labor ideas, best abolished!
08/05/2014: The critters ARE catching on: http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/24254-Deer-Stand.html
07/05/2014: It IS horrifying, is it not? (As the ‘occupation’ of already disgracefully Leftist Q & A the other night demonstrated), AND we might have thought that ‘education’ would produce more critical thinking, more creativity, indeed more diversity. However, NOTHING compensates for the reality that only a small percentage (3-10%) of human beings could actually BENEFIT from a college education; the remainder can ONLY be taught to plagiarise, to copy, to fall in line behind each other. We passed that critical 3% more than a generation ago. Most of the spending on so-called ‘education’ is a complete waste. We would do better equipping those capable of learning (something) with a technical education, and providing the remainder with menial jobs (such as labouring and factory work) instead of exporting such jobs to China (importing their rubbish), and building vast social problems on so-called ‘welfare’ here! http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2014/04/whydomostcollegestudents.html
07/05/2014: Some young folk are BORED with life. Others do THIS. I found myself holding my breath just watching Alex…There are also many OTHER interesting things to DO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phl82D57P58
07/05/2014: ‘Ilivid’ is REALLY hot! If you are impatient like me, give it a go: you can even start watching when only 3% has downloaded! Maybe try the new Coen Bros movie, ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’? Even with just my 5 meg speed I was able to watch it after less than a minute!
07/05/2014: Another 30 yesterday! I estimate there is space for at least another hundred trees in the (extended) garden alone before we move into areas where the trees will require fairly elaborate stock protection. Deciduous trees which can be grown from (large) cuttings, such as willows (there is an EVERGREEN variety) and poplars can be planted (@ 45cm deep and 1.5-2 metres high) in a plastic tube supported by a section of 19mm electrical conduit. As the 'guards are VERY flexible the sheep do not rub against them or climb on them to get at the shoots which grow out the top. By the time the plastic has decayed away the bark is hard enough the sheep will not trouble the trees...at least THAT is the theory!
06/05/2014: Della’s (latest batch of) green tomato pickles certainly passes the taste test. It is a condiment SUPREME. Thanks to Yinnar General Store for the tomatoes. She made MANY jars, enough for a multitude of breakfasts such as I am now savouring, but definitely NOT enough for YOU to have even ONE!
06/05/2014: We have a ‘pair’ of young pallid cuckoos in the garden. Our suspicion is they were raised by the blackbirds (as they seem keen to hang around with them). We wonder whether this pair (of siblings?) will mate and do the same thing next year, and so on…Eventually this hand-out cuckoo strategy (of paying others to breed for them) will exhaust the numbers of blackbirds and others (willing?) to raise their offspring for them. It is self-limiting really. Though they ARE attractive creatures (and the same MIGHT be said of other welfare hangers-on?) it REALLY would be better all round if they shifted for themselves…
06/05/2014: The opinion polls this morning show that there are a disarming number of Australians who are little better than cuckoos really. So many folks have a naïve belief in money trees, cornucopia, horns of plenty, magic puddings…ANYTHING but shift for themselves, take responsibility for themselves, anything rather than have enough pride in themselves to feel the NEED to support themselves, to stand on their own two legs, to accept that there really IS no such thing as a free lunch. I worry about the future of our country which has paid so many ‘cuckoos’ to inhabit it, ‘cuckoos’ in every sense of the word…
06/05/2014: Lesson from the Byron Smith judgement: use a big enough gun to kill with the FIRST shot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_David_Smith_killings
05/05/2014: Trees, trees, trees. Della has had me busy planting them. (This may have reduced her value somewhat!) We will have to be careful to leap out of the way before they are springing up everywhere. We plan (I have this on GOOD authority) to have 25 acres of GARDEN. In the paddocks they will mostly be deciduous trees, as these should increase the available sheep feed whilst keeping the paddocks greener in the hot weather. Mostly yesterday’s 60 odd were grevilleas (as she has fallen in love with honeyeaters) – though the ‘strange’ bird in the garden she pointed out to me yesterday was a pallid cuckoo! It is anyway a harmless eccentricity and WILL keep us off the streets! I guess we have around 1,000-1,500 to go. This MAY take some time. It IS a good feeling though. I guess we already have @500+. Mostly I incline to things which produce useful fruit and nuts. Already I am a sort of god among the local parrots, currawongs and possums who come from miles away to check out our ‘dining table’. I am UTTERLY opposed to gums and wattles which I see as a dreadful invasive pest created by thousands of years of awful aboriginal mismanagement of our land which saw eg phosphorus levels drop to under 3ppm, barely enough to sustain ANY life (except such horrible things) – and which is the principal cause of our destructive bushfires. Around here, we will have damp and green – which doesn’t burn! We WILL have SOME natives (NOTE the grevilleas!); I am particularly fond of Moreton Bay Figs, and Araucarias for example.
05/05/2014:
Boko Haram just doesn’t understand the MARKET! It is apparently offering up the
250+ schoolgirls which it kidnapped for
05/05/2014: ‘Poor people get fat, and watch TV because they are too passive. When we think of true poverty, the famous picture of the migrant mother in the Dust Bowl comes to mind, but today’s poor look more like Honey Boo Boo’s mom. They live in big houses or subsidized apartments. They play video games. They watch TV on a massive screen and they stuff their faces. What do these people do in exchange, to justify their existence and to pay back to a generous society which helps support them and, often, their kids? Or does the entitlement state erase a sense of obligation, duty, and gratitude to tribe, community, and nation? The free-loaders are what bother me. I have known plenty of people who are poor by life-style choice, but they are not seeking freebies from their neighbours via government programs and they are neither fat nor lazy.’ (Maggie’s Farm)
04/05/2014: ‘Shakespeare’s star’ (which presaged the appearance of Hamlet’s dad’s ghost) may have been a 1572 supernova (also known as ‘Tycho’s Sar’) which shone (brighter than Venus) for several months, and whose appearance helped so much to overturn the (previous) geocentric world view and herald in the (new) scientific era, which is still so under attack by religious and pseudo religious views today..
04/05/2014:
A surprising finding: water is corrosive to life, and life almost certainly
arose in its absence, possible even on Mars (Or
04/05/2014: An interesting review of Ian Morris’ surprising book, ‘War, What is it Good For?’ which examines the proposition that war has done more than practically anything else to REDUCE the level of violence in society (!): http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/books-feature/9173241/war-by-ian-morris-review/
03/05/2014:
Evidently there ARE ‘fairy godmothers’! Researching our family tree, I came
across the sister of one of my great, great grandmothers, one Sarah Merriman.
Just like the rest of her family (ALL factory workers) Sarah went to work in
the (woollen) mills of
03/05/2014: Toast soldiers, fairy bread & cookie cutters: when my kids were young (and I was much more nimble fingered than I am now) I spoiled them with a bewildering choice in cutting up these delicacies (until it became quite a nightmare, eg ‘No, I want six tiny triangles and four tiny rectangles’ & etc. No doubt your children controlled your houses in much the same way, with chin-quivering and foot-stamps etc. I NEVER revealed to them the bewildering array of fairy bread which could be made available with cookie cutters. I think THIS is a secret well kept from the small ones FOR ALL TIME, don’t you?
03/05/2014: What a FASCINATING article. Oliver Sachs is just wonderful. You may remember ‘Awakenings’ which was astounding, as was the original Sacks doco it was based on: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/apr/24/mental-life-plants-and-worms-among-others/
02/05/2014: Greg Sheridan: ‘Our gross government debt, at $360 billion, is more than 22 per cent of GDP. This is modest by some international comparisons, but we have jumped into that debt at an astonishing and alarming rate, and the debt is rising rapidly. In one year, from 2011 to 2012, we nearly doubled our net debt. Yet there was no net debt when Labor came to office in 2007…The Abbott government is telling us with maximum honesty that we face a serious and growing budget crisis that is immediate and long-term… Already, because of the debt incurred under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, we pay $12bn a year in interest on government debt… At $12bn, interest payments are more than twice our aid budget, nearly half our defence budget. Is it progressive to let that debt payment rise to $20bn or $30bn?…Abbott and his Treasurer’s budget will cut spending in many areas. Abbott should not have promised in opposition to maintain spending in so many areas, but he is going to make a start now…But he also may share the sacrifice by imposing a temporary levy on high-income earners. If Abbott’s side of politics cannot wear such a modest contribution to addressing the crisis by some sacrifice from its own supporters, then our prospects for getting our public finances back in order may be bleak.’
02/05/2014:
A candidate in the South East European elections has been arrested after making
a speech quoting from a book by Winston Churchill about Islam. Here is the
passage, from The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the
02/05/2014: You SHOULD read this article (AND watch the video). Every so often you NEED to be reminded of the ultimate evil the human mind IS capable of. Bear this in mind when avuncular luminaries (such as Princes Charles and Phillip opine (for eg) that there ARE just vastly too many people (and that the human population would benefit from a virus deadlier than the Black Death - and they DID BOTH say this), then drive away to their castles in their Rollers - a kind of hypocrisy all too familiar in Green circles, who all the time make Ted Bundy look like a pussy cat: http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/yom-hashoah-visions-of-horror-when.html
01/05/2014: May Day: time to pause and remember the hundreds of millions butchered and the billions enslaved by communism and socialism…
01/05/2014:
For at least the last THIRTY years ALL the gas you have been using (from
01/05/2014: An interesting examination of pschopathy, (check out the photo of Ted Bundy if you think you can SPOT one): ‘He suggests that instead of thinking in terms of blameworthiness, the law should deal with the likelihood that someone will reoffend, and issue sentences accordingly, with rehabilitation for those likely to benefit and long sentences for those likely to be long-term dangers.’ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10737827/Psychopaths-how-can-you-spot-one.html
01/05/2014: There are so many STRANGE people in the world…can you BELIEVE there are people who, when eating a fried egg on toast do not halve and halve again until there are precisely eight mouthfuls to enjoy. Weird!
30/04/2014: There is no end to the EVIL which the Greens will get up to. The only way to deal with such people is the old adage, ‘Give them an inch and they will take a mile’. These folks have always made Adolph look like a cookie monster. NOW these folks are set on banning our stoves and fireplaces. They will succeed too if we don’t take them firmly in hand ( a four by two might be handy!) : http://www.independentsentinel.com/epa-is-going-to-regulate-wood-burning-fireplaces-out-of-existence/
30/04/2014: THIS will never work on any car I own: http://editorial.autos.msn.com/blogs/post--will-self-cleaning-paint-put-an-end-to-dirty-cars?icid=autos_5570
30/04/2014:
MH370: I think the most likely explanation about this (phone) call is that he
was locked out of the cockpit (and the plane was immediately taken to 45,000’
and the cabin air disconnected). He would have realised immediately what was
going on and turned his phone on in the hope that in the few seconds he had
left he could get a warning out. If HE had been the hijacker (and wanted to
make a call/explanation) he could have used the plane’s radio. Mind you, this
all depends on WHO gave that final ‘Cheerio’. The Malaysians are still sitting
on the data, having at least ONCE changed their minds about THAT. I think the
telephone ‘handshake’ (no connection, from ANYONE) indicates there is little prospect that anyone (other
than the pilot perhaps) was alive when the plane landed, which it clearly DID –
if we are to believe the Inmarsat pings. This disappearance makes the ‘Mary
Celeste’ look like a High School picnic; a ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock even (!): http://www.smh.com.au/world/mh370-search-copilot-made-call-after-plane-went-off-flight-path-reports-20140412-zqu2q.html
Then again, there is a report (reputedly) out of
29/04/2014: Fitness fanatics have always banged on with ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body’ but much as their efforts towards the latter have sometimes been Herculean (and usually short-lived and unsuccessful, I have yet to see even ONE made any effort towards the former! Always the sloganeering and the poor attempts to shame those who felt no need to spend every waking day playing at tiddlewinks or whatever ‘new’ health craze was in town. Efforts on my part to interest them in Bertrand Russell, Freud, or Shakespeare ever ‘banged back on an empty shaft’…
29/04/2014:
Hot NEWS:
29/04/2014: It is THAT time of year again (Time to remember that a ‘keat’ is a baby guinea fowl and that tuberculosis is a dreadful disease, best extinct – even if the Greens wouldn’t like that!): To Autumn :John Keats 1795-1821 To Autumn
1.
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.
2.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its
twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours
by hours.
3.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or
dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the
skies.
28/04/2014: SCRAP (or at lest SELL the ABC). If folk really want such treasonous leftist twaddle let THEM pay for it. Seriously, Simpson NOT a hero! http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/abc_donkey_squad/
28/04/2014:
‘NO people-smuggling venture had succeeded in landing asylum seekers on
28/04/2014: And now, a ONE miracle saint. Hagiography ain’t what it used to was! It’s like a ram with one stone, like ONE Weet-Bix for breakfast with skim milk and no sugar…Ah, the ‘sea of faith’s…melancholy, long, withdrawing roar’!
27/04/2014: 450! Happy Birthday Bill. Seems like only yesterday you were 400! Ah, ‘Alas poor Yorick’!
27/04/2014:
WARNING: the new series of ‘
27/04/2014: I can see that requiring everyone to work until they are 70 would be particularly hard on the poor (who are apparently not going to get to BE 70 – unlike the rich who are going to get to be 85, Hoorah! So glad I am the one, rather than the other!) Quite astonishing differences are revealed here. Quite a proportion of the ‘poor’ are also treated like aristocrats and never expected/allowed to work, so you would think they would all live as long as the Queen Mother! Nothing is ever quite what you expect it to be: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/more-money-more-life-the-depressing-reality-of-inequality-in-america/360895/
26/04/2014: These two guys could not be more different. Guess which one I celebrate and which one I would sack: http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/digger-wanted-to-march-despite-collapsing/story-e6frfku9-1226896111471 & http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/corporal-baird-honoured-in-hobart/story-e6frfku9-1226895802689
26/04/2014: This project is JUST fascinating. I'm up for $100. How about you? http://www.rockethub.com/projects/42228-isee-3-reboot-project-by-space-college-skycorp-and-spaceref
26/04/2014: I don’t think it is JUST my increasing arthritis makes it harder to start new rolls of toilet paper. I think they ARE putting more glue on them so that you waste more paper getting them open. You would think this resource waste would be a key element of the ‘Greens’ policies – given that they are full of s---t anyway!
26/04/2014: Of course, if we DON”T have global warming, things might not be very nice. A return to the conditions of the ‘Little Ice Age’ which we came out of only c200 years ago would spell terrible things for a great many people. I have said before there is a pressing need to improve our food supply (particularly increasing yields at lower seasonal temperatures and shorter growing seasons. I hope this CAN be achieved by GM!) Energy will be another important element: we need to boost nuclear as much as possible and to move to a thorium cycle. We have to realise that much of the populated world may once again go under the ice and be ready to move them to safer havens. (Here at Jeeralang Junction we hope to have found one – even if the poles melted we are 200 metres above sea level (40 metres higher than the seas could ever rise!) Our seasons would be shorter if it became colder but we would be far from the ice. This article is a worthwhile read: http://joannenova.com.au/2014/04/why-life-in-the-21st-century-will-be-nasty-brutish-and-short/
26/04/2014:
25/04/2014: THE ANZAC ON THE WALL by Jim Brown
I wandered thru a country town, 'cos I had some time to spare,
And went into an antique shop to see what was in there.
Old Bikes and pumps and kero lamps, but hidden by it all,
A photo of a soldier boy – an Anzac on the Wall.
'The Anzac have a name?' I asked. The old man answered 'No'.
The ones who could have told me mate, have passed on long ago.
The old man kept on talking and, according to his tale,
The photo was unwanted junk bought from a clearance sale.
'I asked around', the old man said, 'but no-one knows his face,
He's been on that wall twenty years... Deserves a better place.
For some-one must have loved him, so it seems a shame somehow.'
I nodded in agreement and then said, 'I'll take him now.'
My nameless digger's photo, well it was a sorry sight
A cracked glass pane and a broken frame - I had to make it right
To prise the photo from its frame I took care just in case,
Cause only sticky paper held the cardboard back in place.
I peeled away the faded screed and much to my surprise,
Two letters and a telegram appeared before my eyes
The first reveals my Anzac's name, and regiment of course
John Mathew Francis Stuart - of
This letter written from the front... My interest now was keen
This note was dated August seventh 1917
'Dear Mum, I'm at Khalasa Springs not far from the
They say it's in the Bible - looks like a Billabong to me.
'My Kathy wrote I'm in her prayers... she's still my bride to be
I just can't wait to see you both, you're all the world to me.
And Mum you'll soon meet Bluey, last month they shipped him out
I told him to call on you when he's up and about.'
'That bluey is a larrikin, and we all thought it funny
He lobbed a Turkish hand grenade into the CO's dunny.
I told you how he dragged me wounded, in from no man's land
He stopped the bleeding, closed the wound, with only his bare hand.'
'Then he copped it at the front from some stray shrapnel blast
It was my turn to drag him in and I thought he wouldn't last.
He woke up in hospital, and nearly lost his mind
Cause out there on the battlefield he'd left one leg behind.'
'He's been in a bad way Mum, he knows he'll ride no more
Like me he loves a horse's back, he was a champ before.
So Please Mum can you take him in, he's been like my own brother
Raised in a
But Struth, I miss
I am a mountain cattleman on high plains far away.
I'm mustering white-faced cattle, with no camel's hump in sight
And I waltz my Matilda by a campfire every night
I wonder who rides Billy, I heard the pub burnt down
I'll always love you and please say hooroo to all in town'.
The second letter I could see, was in a lady's hand
An answer to her soldier son there in a foreign land.
Her copperplate was perfect, the pages neat and clean
It bore the date, November 3rd 1917.
'T'was hard enough to lose your Dad, without you at the war
I'd hoped you would be home by now - each day I miss you more'
'Your Kathy calls around a lot since you have been away
To share with me her hopes and dreams about your wedding day.
And Bluey has arrived - and what a godsend he has been
We talked and laughed for days about the things you've done and seen'
'He really is a comfort, and works hard around the farm,
I read the same hope in his eyes that you won't come to harm.
McConnell's kids rode Billy, but suddenly that changed.
We had a violent lightning storm, and it was really strange.'
'Last Wednesday, just on midnight, not a single cloud in sight,
It raged for several minutes, it gave us all a fright.
It really spooked your Billy - and he screamed and bucked and reared
And then he rushed the sliprail fence, which by a foot he cleared'
'They brought him back next afternoon, but something's changed I fear
It's like the day you brought him home, for no one can get near.
Remember when you caught him with his black and flowing mane?
Now Horse breakers fear the beast that only you can tame,'
'That's why we need you home son' - then the flow of ink went dry-
This letter was unfinished, and I couldn't work out why.
Until I started reading, the letter number three
A yellow telegram delivered news of tragedy,
Her son killed in action - oh - what pain that must have been
The same date as her letter - 3rd November 1917
This letter which was never sent, became then one of three
She sealed behind the photo's face - the face she longed to see.
And John's home town's old timers - children when he went to war
Would say no greater cattleman had left the town before.
They knew his widowed mother well - and with respect did tell
How when she lost her only boy she lost her mind as well.
She could not face the awful truth, to strangers she would speak
'My Johnny's at the war you know, he's coming home next week.'
They all remembered Bluey he stayed on to the end.
A younger man with wooden leg became her closest friend.
And he would go and find her when she wandered old and weak
And always softly say 'yes dear - John will be home next week.'
Then when she died Bluey moved on, to
I tried to find out where he went, but don't know to this day.
And Kathy never wed - a lonely spinster some found odd.
She wouldn't set foot in a church - she'd turned her back on God.
John's mother left no Will I learned on my detective trail.
This explains my photo's journey, of that clearance sale.
So I continued digging, cause I wanted to know more.
I found John's name with thousands, in the records of the war.
His last ride proved his courage - a ride you will acclaim
The Light Horse Charge at
That last day in October, back in 1917
At 4pm our brave boys fell - that sad fact I did glean.
That's when John's life was sacrificed, the record's crystal clear
But 4pm in
So as John's gallant spirit rose to cross the great divide,
Were lightning bolts back home, a signal from the other side?
Is that why Billy bolted and went racing as in pain?
Because he'd never feel his master on his back again?
Was it coincidental? same time - same day - same date?
Some proof of numerology, or just a quirk of fate?
I think it's more than that you know, as I've heard wiser men,
Acknowledge there are many things that go beyond our ken
Where craggy peaks guard secrets 'neath dark skies torn asunder,
Where hoof-beats are companions to the rolling waves of thunder
Where lightning cracks like 303's and ricochets again
Where howling moaning gusts of wind sound just like dying men.
Some Mountain cattlemen have sworn on lonely alpine track,
They've glimpsed a huge black stallion - Light Horseman on his back.
Yes Sceptics say, it's swirling clouds just forming apparitions
Oh no, my friend you can't dismiss all this as superstition.
The
John Stuart rides on forever there - Now I don't find that strange.
Now some gaze upon this photo, and they often question me
And I tell them a small white lie, and say he's family.
'You must be proud of him.' they say - I tell them, one and all,
That's why he takes - the pride of place - my Anzac on the Wall.
25/04/2014:
Watched the movie ‘
25/04/2014: My father Lawrence Jones (photo 1/02/1954), ten years before his untimely death from brain cancer. He would have been 99 years old today having been born on the very first Anzac Day. (His grandfather, David Jones lived to 99!) It is hard to believe we have been missing him for 51 years...
26/04/2014: Replies to comments: You can't know how hard it was losing him at 13. Since then I had to make my own way in the world - until I discovered Della.
26/04/2014: Sadly the nature of his illness meant I lost most of him some years earlier. Unfortunately the veil of time has removed many happy memories of our brief time together before he became ill. Life has been a struggle for me. I had to work early, hard and long, for example. I have always felt somewhat alone in the world. (Childhood) grief can have a long and pervasive effect. Of course he had only a little over 40 good years; I have had 65, so far! Thank you for thinking I turned out OK anyway.
26/04/2014: Nothing in life is fair. It is all luck. 'Fairness' would imply a designer or an umpire. The universe is entirely neutral to our lives. We are what we make ourselves to be. There is no sense in saying something 'made' us happy/unhappy. Only our self has the ability to make us happy. If/when you are unhappy, you must see what (falsehood) in yourself is making you unhappy - and change that!
25/04/2014:
72 new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters! You BEAUTY! TWICE as many would be even
better! This acquisition will begin the process of rebuilding our parlous
‘Defence’ forces to something like readiness after the disastrous (if not
wholly TREASONOUS) Gillard years. It MIGHT also be a good idea to switch ON the
‘over the horizon’ radar which would have detected MH370 – or eg a sneak attack
on
24/04/2014: At first I thought this might replace my old hiking (booze) standby ‘Bacardi 151 (= 75% alcohol) but on further investigation I see it would weigh more - & likely taste crap to boot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_powder
24/04/2014: In other hiking news, I am going to try THIS out as my new hiking alarm clock (http://www.invisibleclock.com/) @ 1.5 ounces. My increasing deafness makes it impossible for me to hear most lightweight alarm clocks, so if I have to get up early (eg to catch the tide for a walk along the beach - which I did on the South Coast Track) I can easily sleep in. I hope I NEVER need THIS one (which weighs over 5 ounces but @ 120 decibels it might even wake me up! http://www.screamingmeanie.com/
24/04/2014: The ‘Barrier Reef Issue’: Surely the issue is 'Save a miniscule fraction of the Barrier Reef'? The reef is LARGER THAN VICTORIA. As such its totality is on NO danger from anything! Especially when the litigation is like to cost more than the dredging (AND achieve NOTHING! Like ALL litigation – save fatten the lawyers!) The trouble is, if we want to have money to spend on things (like conservation, preserving many of the beauties of the Reef, etc) we must EARN it - eg by exporting energy (by far our largest industry!) My ‘poor old mum’ used to opine (laconically), 'None so pure as the pure in heart'. I also liked GK Chesterton's comment (I recently quoted), ‘there is scarcely a shade of difference left between meaning well and meaning nothing’.
23/04/2014: Quote of the century: Abraham Lincoln (1861):’The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves – in their separate, and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere.’
23/04/2014: Just how utterly MAD can ‘Governments’ get? Well, THIS mad. The UN thinks vacuuming CO2 out of the air may be the ONLY way toe SAVE the planet (which got by just fine with a hundred TIMES as much CO2 in the past!): http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/04/not-a-joke%E2%86%92-un-says-vacuuming-co2-out-of-air-may-be-only-way-to-save-planet-earth/?ModPagespeed=noscript
23/04/2014:
If
22/04/2014: Tax Freedom Day. Today is the day you stop working for the Government and start working for yourself. Comparable dates for other countries are even more frightening as is the data on the growth in the percentage of our wealth spent on taxes over time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Freedom_Day
22/04/2014: What a WONDER the ‘Zeppelin’ was. O, to have flown in it! Around the world in 12 days: http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/places/samantha-weinberg/graf-zeppelin
22/04/2014:
Even as an atheist I still have a problem with the
ubiquitous season’s greeting which seems to have crept into our society, ‘Happy
Easter’. Just about every customer who came into the shop on Friday said this
to me (requiring me to respond in kind). I doubted somehow they had also
watched Mel Gibson’s, ‘The Passion of the Christ’ on late night TV the night
before! Could it be that they do not KNOW the significance of ‘Good Friday’?
The greeting just seems a little thoughtless is all…I expect they would toss it
off as cheerily to Christ as he ‘ambled’ up the hill with his firewood on THAT
day…Maybe we should change it to ‘Happy Holiday’? In some ways it IS nice
though to be living in a time when people no longer even RECOGNISE the
shibboleths and fetishes of the past! Of course, the Gospel according to
Phillip has Christ living on, marrying Mary Magdalene and begetting children –
some even claim descent from him. I believe his grave can be viewed somewhere
on the sub-continent,
21/04/2014: VERY bad news for this particular rapper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk_q05r8DcM
21/04/2014:
21/04/2014: We have been watching old episodes of ‘Wagon Train’ (Series 1 & 2 1958-9) which then starred Ward Bond and Robert Horton. The scripting is very good. These were excellent stories, dealing with important issues well ahead of their time and were universally morally uplifting – something which is so often wanting in today’s shows.
20/04/2014: MH370: I think it is REALLY strange that AMSA (see map!) is still searching over 1,000km from where Ocean Shield ‘heard’ the ‘pings’. Clearly there are MANY things we have not been told about this whole dreadful occurrence: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-19/mh370-search-at-critical-juncture-as-drone-mission-continues/5400094
20/04/2014: Mark Twain: ‘There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.’ More PROOF here on Michael Crichton’s conjecture that ALIENS cause global warming: http://www.drroyspencer.com/2014/04/do-aliens-cause-global-warming-the-data-say-yes/
20/04/2014:
This is pretty neat: This 300 ft Wall in
20/04/2014: Socialists here are banging on about ‘The Government’ not spending enough money on cleaning up (eg Morwell) after the (Hazelwood Mine) fire, that there should be an enquiry into the long-term health effects, and so ad nauseum…It WAS a bit smoky for a while, pretty much like the air was all the time in Newcastle when I was growing up, and nowhere near as bad as the London air was when Della’s mum was growing up there in the 20’s and 30’s – and she lived to be 91. People should look after themselves. In the past people were quite capable of cleaning up a bit of coal dust themselves without always expecting their fellow citizens to chip in. The reds are SO inventive about what OUR money could be spent on. I am opposed to them collecting it from ME at all, and do everything I CAN to avoid ‘The Government’ getting its hands on a single cent of MY hard-earned – as they will only waste it on silly causes…I was much in favour (once) of the L5 society’s plans to build space habitats at the ‘Lagrange Points,’ as there even the air would have to be paid for by the inhabitants – a policy which would automatically ELIMINATE socialists – as they would never find someone else in time to cough up the necessary credits for their next unfunded lungful…THEN I remembered how dodgy credit cards can be; how betimes I have been caught out without a cent to spend by the dreadful things - even when my account was replete with cash. Such a situation might be a bit more than embarrassing if I hadn’t fed my oxygen meter today.
20/04/2014:
Of course you realise that of all the whales killed
by the whaling industry over the centuries almost none was ever EATEN? In the
absence of rerigeration their only viable products were oil, baleen, scrimshaw,
spermaceti...Similarly, prior to c1890 they used to kill 4 million sheep at
Echuca (for eg) entirely for their hides and tallow. All the carcasses were
just tipped in to the
19/04/2014: Greenie whale huggers apparently are unaware (as of SO many other things) that John D Rockefelller (Standard Oil) saved the whales circa 1872 by giving the world (cheap) kerosene which so outcompeted whale oil as to drive all its ‘producers’ broke. Ain’t capitalism wonderful! Now there are literally MILLIONS of minke whales (for eg) there remains little argument against harvesting a few now and then. If we don’t, whales will eat up everything in the sea! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller
19/04/2014:
This IS the C21st! WHAT a gal! A 13-year-old eagle
huntress in
19/04/2014: Your taxes at WORK (Sounds like FUN though): Northwestern U hosts event for female students who are ‘having trouble masturbating’: http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=5535
18/04/2014: The great bee scam, another evil conspiracy by the endlessly corrupt ‘Greenpeace’: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100244756/how-green-bullying-junk-science-and-eu-lies-killed-off-yet-another-successful-industry/ & http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/04/11/Bees-doing-just-fine-finds-EU-but-continues-to-ban-the-pesticide-which-didn-t-harm-them
18/04/2014: The natural world still holds many great mysteries: for example there is something which is smarter and tougher than crows or (sulphur crested) cockatoos - else their numbers would be infinite. Yet you pretty much never see one killed on the road or its feathers scattered in the paddock by a predator. You can’t blame foxes, cats or motor cars, as something kept them in check long before these ‘pests’ were introduced, before even aborigines I imagine…What can it possibly be?
18/04/2014: I am NOT a great admirer of Paul Keating though there are some of his policies which have been most worthwhile. He DID succeed in freeing up the Australian economy a great deal – as it had long been mired in socialist shackles. Also, he introduced the universal compulsory superannuation ‘system’ we have today envisaging that it would eventually replace state based ‘entitlements’ such as the old age pension etc. Until then it was largely public servants who ‘owned’ superannuation as they forewent more lucrative emoluments elsewhere to work for the common good. There was also private superannuation which the provident contributed to. The improvident gave no thought for the future, squandering their lifelong earnings and then throwing themselves on the mercy of the public as common beggars seeking the old age pension. SUCH folks want to continue this profligacy over twenty years later than Keating’s superannuation reforms. Remember : ‘Tanstafl’ = ‘There ain’t no such thing as (a) free lunch’ (Robert Heinlein, ‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress’)
17/04/2014: So much for the health benefits of red wine...it WAS only a wee bottle of Grange!
17/04/2014: In praise of babes: Many people think of society (or THE Government) as some giant ‘sugardaddy’ which doles out its largesse if you simply snuggle up to it in the cutest possible way…It is more like a savings bank, making a very little interest perhaps, but mainly safeguarding the assets you put in its trust: in which regard, YOU CANNOT TAKE OUT WHAT YOU NEVER PUT IN. Those who never made a (financial) contribution have no assets there to access and NO entitlements. THEY needs must simply live on the charity of the rest of us, if we will have them! The most important asset we input to the common ‘bank’ is our children, as it is they who will (ultimately) provide for us in old age (through their work, taxes, sacrifice etc). Those who had no children have no such assets, and so no claim on the commonality. It is THEY who will have to work on until they die - as they have provided no-one to take their place. There are some people who have a greater claim than others, as they have made a greater contribution: our soldiers (and emergency workers) who put their lives on the line for the common good, for example. Many have noted the demographic change of the last couple of generations which have led to the ‘average’ woman producing fewer children. I don’t think that is really how it has worked out at all. The majority of women have continued to have 2-3 children (and also paid their taxes!) whilst some have produced none. I guess there are four main causes (aside from ‘natural’ infertility which has deservedly received much public redress). Sexual licence (and cheap contraception) allowed many to either choose to have no children at all or to so injure their fertility with cheap abortions and sexually transmitted diseases they were unable to conceive. At the same time rampant homosexuality has reduced the number of offspring. Various deluded greens and selfish others CHOSE not to have children (some for the ‘good of the planet’). None of these childless folks has EARNED the right to a retirement pension - which can only be paid by the work and taxes of the healthy children of the rest of us. I can quite agree with the Government that when something is in short supply (such as retirement) that it has to be rationed: this does not mean that ‘per capita’ is the fairest desiderata. As I said before: YOU CANNOT TAKE OUT WHAT YOU NEVER PUT IN. The childless should clearly largely be excluded from retirement benefits (unless they were soldiers etc).
16/04/2014:
Watched ‘Raid on
16/04/2014:
Before you take that next trip to
16/04/2014: I have been looking at our family tree to see whether we really ARE living longer than our ancestors. I know the age of death of 53/60 of our combined ancestors. The average age of death of (Della and my) parents was 76.25, grandparents = 69.125 (8/8 known), great grandparents = 75.87 (16/16), great-great grandparents = 62.16 (25/32 known). No pattern (of gradual increase) there. I suspect the average age of death or our more remote ancestors will push HIGHER if I can find out WHEN they died, but the Irish records are bad. One thing I do notice is how much an early death pulls the average down, so eg an accidental death or a touch of TB in the family really has a large effect. This is because the average age of death of all our ancestors displays a high degree of ‘clumping’ ie they would not have got to be our ancestors if they died in infancy (like my brother – whose death as a baby should really pull the average for my generation of my family down!); 33/53 of our combined ancestors lived past 65 so could have benefited from the aged pension (which for many did not exist when they were old – I also know that fewer than this actually received the pension eg either declining it, living on their own means, continuing working, etc). My average ancestor would have collected the old age pension for 3.45 years (average age of death 69.45 (of 24/30 known). Della’s would have collected for only 1.52 years (!) average age of death 66.52 (29/30 known). Between us, our children’s ancestors would have collected for 2.84 years - average age of death 67.84 (53 known out of a total of 60). My six ‘missing’ Irish ancestors would probably have pushed this up as bit given that the known Irish ancestors were long lived. However, averages are deceptive as the 33 who lived past 65 died at an average age of 80 so they would have collected for 15 years – quite an impost on the 20 who died early! In our families men lived longer than women: my family’s men lived to 73.83 as against 65.08 for women. In Della’s men lived to 71 and women to 62.33! Times have changed: now it is women who live longer, so it is women who are pushing up the cost of the pension (and who have spent less time working to contribute to it). Perhaps it was better (economically) when they on average died before they would have become eligible! Of course, during the time since our great-great grandparents were born (in the early years of the C19th) average labour productivity has increased by at least 2% per annum, making the old age pension easy for our ancestors to afford in 1900 and even easier for US to afford over 100 years later! Of course 20/53 (of 60) of our ancestors did NOT live past 65 (a ‘problem’ which still exists today), yet they would (have been expected) to contribute to the ‘pension pool’ but have received no personal benefit, not even an amount for their estate! Again, some no doubt worked many fewer years than others (and vice versa) which leads us to the question whether a retirement benefit funded indiscriminately by the taxpayer (and only claimable by those who exceed age 65,66,67…) is fair and equitable as compared to a ‘contributions’ scheme for example where you only get out in proportion to what you put in - & eg the ‘unclaimed’ portion forms part of your estate.
15/04/2014:
The
15/04/2014:
‘Renewable energy was supposed to usher in a new era of job creation in
15/04/2014: Spot on, Christopher: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/10746497/How-did-the-IPCCs-alarmism-take-everyone-in-for-so-long.html
14/04/2014: We used to sing this on Empire Day (May 24th). WHAT a poem: Rudyard Kipling: ‘Recessional’
God of
our fathers, known of old—
Lord of our far-flung battle line—
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies—
The Captains and the Kings depart—
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
Far-called our navies melt away—
On dune and headland sinks the fire—
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe—
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard—
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!
Amen.
14/04/2014:
If you have EVER though, ‘Has the sun finally set on the
13/04/2014: CRV (Cigarette Request Violence) is a growing problem: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/dont_ask_dont_kill/
13/04/2014: I think this is about TRUE (though I HAVE actually read SOME of them): http://thefederalist.com/2014/01/16/the-top-ten-books-people-lie-about-reading/
13/04/2014: So, it turns out ONE thing your mother told you IS true: http://time.com/45424/no-its-not-safe-to-pee-in-the-pool-says-science/
12/04/2014: THIS is why we have installed an electronically controlled gate and why we are ARMED to the teeth. You can bet that if such scum try this around here they will end up VERY dead. WHEN are we going to stop importing such bastards, start executing them and drive the rest into the SEA: http://pickeringpost.com/story/did-islamic-youths-rape-another-young-mother-/3080
12/04/2014:
We MUST resist this creeping Sharia. First we had ‘halal’ abattoirs requiring
an Islamic ‘tax’ then used to fund Islamic schools. The NAB (& other banks)
have introduced Sharia banking. Decentralisation of state schooling (and public
funding of ‘private’ schools) is fuelling a huge increase in Islamic (& other)
schools which can only lead to social division and to Fifth Columnist
indoctrination. Then there is this case from
12/04/2014: ‘Apparently the human body does not run on good intentions. It does run, at least in part, on meat. That’s why we have incisors.’ Study Finds That Vegetarians Are Less Healthy: http://moonbattery.com/?p=44169
12/04/2014: MH370: In 1952 Alain Bombard (deliberately) crossed the Atlantic (4400km) in @ 60 days in a 4.5 metre in an inflatable life raft subsisting on only sea water and fish he caught along the way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Bombard The greatest survivor of all, Poon Lim survived 133 days at sea in 1943 on a 2.4 metre wooden hatch cover. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poon_Lim The pilot (and others) CAN still be alive!
11/04/2014: Move over Sherlock, the future is HERE, DNA mugshots: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/03/these-eerily-accurate-mugshots-were-created-from-dna-alone/
11/04/2014: THIS farrago has been going on FAR TOO LONG: Frank Pledge, Quadrant: ‘Consider the appendix of the 1899-1900 Annual Report of the South Australian Protector of Aborigines “ In South Australia the public funds, so far as the natives were concerned, chiefly went in providing rations and clothing in depôts scattered about the colony…He had heard criticisms…that they did not do enough in the way of providing food and clothing for the natives. He was personally quite convinced that it was possible to do more harm than good by indiscriminately providing food and clothing all over the place, and so leading the natives to think there was no necessity for them to work. They might spend four or five times as much money as at present, and do a great deal less good than was being done. Idleness among whites or blacks bred all kinds of trouble, disease, and finally death, and if they took care that the assistance rendered by the public always went in the direction of helping those institutions which aided in providing work for the natives, they would do far more good than by public or private indiscriminate charity to the aborigines. He had seen natives in a good many places.” Those guys recognised in 1900 that welfarism was no solution to Aboriginal (or other) problems, and were prepared to take flack from the charitable NGOs while rejecting it. And they are still, 100 years later, taking flack for their non grand-standing approach. http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/bennelong-papers/2014/02/pathological-altruism-consequences/
11/04/2014: IS the aging of the population and an increasing average age of death REALLY the cause of a decline in available adult workers able to pay taxes to fund social programmes? It seems to me equally likely that pushing an ever larger percentage of the population into yet more years of education (or into ‘disability’ or other ‘support’) also needlessly subtracts them from the employment pool? When I was 15, the average person left school and began working. Most continued working for 50 years until they were 65 AT LEAST. Few ever returned to ‘education’ or needed to: for two reasons. They were better educated by far at 15 than the average 15 year old is today with not only much higher literacy and numeracy but infinitely higher skills in most practical areas (almost completely lacking today!) and ‘on-the-job’ training (rather than uni/tech) was the norm – which was much more efficient and time-saving procedure. In those days schooling began at 5. There were at most 11 years of schooling (but brighter kids were accelerated to shorten this) , meaning that even those who went on to tech/uni did so at 15/16 and were finished at 17/19 leaving them still 46/8 years in the workforce before age 65 retirement. Now, the average student doesn’t finish school until at least 18 and if they go on to tertiary (more often than not 4 years) they are at least 22 before they enter the workforce. Increasing percentages are being pushed into further nonsensical second degrees, entailing at least another 3 years so that they are 25 before they can sensibly begin work. It is absurdly unlikely that they have gained skills in this ‘wasted’ ten years which will ever pay back the investment in time they have spent. Then a VERY small percentage of the population was so ‘disabled’ (say 1%) they could not meaningfully contribute to society. NOW this percentage is OVER 10%. Then we had no ‘supporting mother’s benefit’. People were expected to support themselves (and did). Now we have half a million children being raised (undesirably) by this process - which also subtracts at least 3% of prospective workers from the employment pool. Add to this ‘improvements’ in gerontology which keep utterly dysfunctional aged people living in desperate dependency long after their plight would have once been alleviated by a needle of morphine, and long after they would have wished to continue. It is NOT age 65 ‘retirement’ which society can no longer afford, but a whole grab-bag of other social ‘experiments’ which are not being questioned at all!
10/04/2014: On the wall of the Port Craig Schoolhouse was a photo of the last class there (c1928). Very poignant I felt. I wonder whether one of these bright youngsters still survives somewhere, still remembering her far-off schooldays?
10/04/2014:
MH370 Debris: If the plane CRASHED and BROKE UP where they are looking now, the
debris should long ago have been scattered along the WA coast. In that part of the
world the winds are generally
10/04/2014:
Yet another example of the ‘draconian’ tendency in a modern ‘democracy’ where
(in
09/04/2014:
The South Coast Track, Fiordland NZ: is SO much better than the similarly named
South Coast Track in
Port Craig Schoolhouse
Camp at
09/04/2014: The beginning of the end: Bob Kernohan spoke on the record to the Royal Commission about Bill Shorten yesterday…
09/04/2014: GREAT news for emergency patients and not a far step from suspended animation: http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2014/03/just-when-you-thought-you-would-never-see-any-of-that-stuff-from-science-fiction-novels.html
08/04/2014: An interesting piece of Australian history: our first Islamic terrorists, Broken Hill 1 Jan 1915, three months BEFORE Anzac: 6 dead, 7 wounded. It may have been the first, but it certainly won’t be the LAST: http://pickeringpost.com/story/islamic-suicide-attack-on-broken-hill/3005
08/04/2014: MH370: A further thought: Now that some ‘black box’ signals have been found (about 1500 km closer to Malaysia), we can be sure that the last two (or three) satellite pings (Nos 7 & 8 anyway) came from a plane which was FLOATING on the sea (because it had been carefully landed). Too much time had passed (but not enough distance) for it to have still been in the air. This means that the pilot was alive and did NOT commit suicide. He will have made good his escape you can be sure, as this was a meticulously planned operation. He might have had assistants who possibly met him there (though they would have to be watching him pretty carefully after he had just killed 250 people!) or he could have acted alone. He would have had to include (as cargo) some means of propelling the lifeboat to his chosen destination where he has no doubt made off with the huge quantity of gold (or whatever very heavy expensive cargo the plane was carrying to mean that it could fly 50 passengers short). If this is the case there will be no wreckage as the plane did not crash and did not break up. When he was finished with it he simply scuttled it and went on his way! He really meant that this plane never be found, but (like so many crooks) he was simply WRONG!
08/04/2014: Labor’s vote fell to 21.8% in the WA Senate election. Counting the ‘donkey vote’ fewer than one in five Australians believe they deserve to govern. Clearly Shorten is finished. (I see this morning Martin Ferguson states his willingness to testify at the Royal Commission into Union Corruption, which should see him and Ju-Liar off somewhere for a LONG holiday), but the Party needs to either disband or rid itself of its corrupt and disastrous left wing and forever distance itself from the utterly evil and crazy ‘Greens’. I was in the past an admirer (even a member) of this once great party, but today it is a hollow, evil thing. I notice that the latest Newspoll has Liberal 51 Labor 49. As the positive effects of things like the new trade agreements, the repeal of the carbon/mining taxes, the Royal Commission into union corruption, the prosecution of further prominent Labor figures (eg Ju-Liar) begin to bite, expect the party to completely self-destruct.
07/04/2014: ‘Nihil ex nihilo’ (‘Nothing from nothing’) used to be a popular saying, mostly followed by ‘ergo Deum’ (‘Therefore God’). For long this approach: the attempt to understand and explain the ‘Universe’ by reason (once, alone) was supplanted gradually by ‘the scientific method’ (or ‘epistemology’ in philosophical terms, ie that which ‘we’ can apprehend with the senses). Of course the former reasoning was shown (reductio ad absurdum) to be fallacious in that, if used as a ‘proof’ of the necessity of a ‘God’ it also required the existence of prior ‘things’ to CREATE ‘God’ and so on ad infinitum. The religious mentality resiled at the idea of the ‘Big Bang’ ie the ‘universe’ coming into existence out of ‘nothing’, but there IS definitive scientific proof of ‘things’ coming into existence out of ‘’nothing’ (as required by Quantum Theory). In ‘reality’ the exact amount of matter/energy appearing ‘out of (discrete ‘quantities’) of nothing’ has been measured and quantified by physicists today (and may even one day provide ALL our energy needs!) Only so much can be learned by reason; even then you have to be VERY careful of the truth of ‘axioms’ , first principles, premises – and also of the VALIDITY of the argument…
07/04/2014: Boltzman Brains. Quantum theory postulates that the ‘universe’ is entirely probabilistic; that ‘things’ (including universes’) can (and do) just pop into existence out of nothingness; (just like the pygmy hippopotamus shot by a pig hunter on the Daly River NT http://www.news.com.au/national/pygmy-hippopotamus-shot-during-northern-territory-hunting-trip/story-e6frfkvr-1225798038412); that therefore there ‘are’ an infinity of ‘universes’. That being so, huge cosmic intelligences will constantly arise out of nothingness…these are known as ‘Boltzman Brains’. If the speed of light really IS an unbreakable barrier, these guys must be VERY lonely indeed, and quite utterly MAD. Should any one such decide to CREATE a universe, we should not expect TOO much from such a creation!
07/04/2014: Well, Hello World: Back from a few days walking the Dusky & South Coast Tracks in Fiordland NZ. Cheers.
Supper Cove, Dusky Track Fiordland NZ
Waterfall Burn Dusky Track Fiordland NZ
Te
26/03/2014:
OUTLAWRY. It was SUCH a good idea: H. L. Mencken explains the ancient
punishment of outlawry, last applied in
26/03/2014: Expect a break from me: tomorrow I am off for ten days’ hiking in Fiordland. In the unlikely event that I capture a photo of a live moose, I will come back $100,000 richer as there is a prize offered. I HAVE seen one, and have seen much sign over the years: tracks, browse, fewmets…so I am in with a chance. Wish me luck. In any case, be assured I WILL enjoy myself in that vast wilderness.
26/03/2014: Labor is NOT a representative political party (only 18% of workers are union members, yet 48% of Labor MPs are (ex) unionists). The Labor Party simply serves at the behest of thuggish union leaders who have been for many years doing their level best to destroy the country: ‘SENATORS – 31 Labor Senators presently in Parliament, 18 of which have held positions in unions, (below) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES – 55 Labor MPs presently in Parliament, 23 of which have held positions in unions
Catryna
Bilyk, ASU
Mark Bishop, SDAEA
Doug Cameron, AMWU
Jacinta Collins, SDAEA
Stephen Conroy, TWU
Don Farrell, SDAEA
Mark Furner, TWU
Alex Gallacher, TWU
John Hogg, SDAEA
Sue Lines, United Voice
Joe Ludwig, AWU
Kate Lundy, CFMEU
Gavin Marshall, ETU
Anne McEwen, ASU
Claire Moore, CPSU
Lisa Singh, AEU
Glenn Sterle, TWU
Anne Urquhart, FPU and AMWU
Chris
Bowen, FSU
Anna Burke, FSU
Tony Burke, SDAEA
Mark Butler, LHMU
Terri Butler, AWU
Nick Champion, SDAEA
Lisa Chesters, United Voice
Pat Conroy, CFMEU
Michael Danby, SDAEA
David Feeney, TWU
Laurie Ferguson, FMWU
Alan Griffin, Union organiser
Chris Hayes, AWU
Ed Husic, CEPU
Stephen Jones, CPSU
Richard Marles, TWU and ACTU
Brendan O’Connor, ASU
Graham Perrett, QIEU
Bernie Ripoll, ETU
Amanda Rishworth, SDAEA
Bill Shorten, AWU
Warren Snowdon, NTTLC
Matt Thistlethwaite, AWU and Unions NSW’: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2014/03/24/unemployment/
26/03/2014: Concerning profundity, let me say that I am weary of the barrage of posters arrayed with glib epithets and bizarre homilies masquerading as wisdom. Most are at best doggerel and contain all manner of inner contradictions or obvious fallacies. True profundity might require more than a throwaway line, and rather more mental effort. Undertake a course in elementary logic, understand how the scientific method actually works, bone up on some science, maths, history, literature…Expect perhaps to have to read a number of whole BOOKS (eg by Plato, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein…), and to have to do some darn hard thinking about what you find therein…
25/03/2014: Just barking MAD: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/bottled-water-ban
25/03/2014:
The case of the guy in the
25/03/2014: The ‘Big Apple’ SURE still IS: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2014/03/new-york-metros-economy-almost-large-australias/8543/
24/03/2014: “ ‘Nice’! English teachers have a lot to answer for perhaps in challenging students to chose more evocative terms (eg than ‘nice’). As a result of this perhaps, our language gradually becomes poorer. Some words become distorted from their true meaning (gorgeous, rampant), then are over-used to an incredible extent. So ‘fabulous’ no longer suggested lost cities, unicorns etc but to any number of mundane things from pop stars to washing powder. ‘Awe’ used to be the profoundest of emotions suitable only when ‘wonder’ ‘rapture’ etc were insufficient to describe the depth of the experience. Now, it seems I should click on practically everything as ‘awesome’. Don’t get me started on that most innocent of terms to describe pleasure and happiness. Children (and myself) can nevermore be simply ‘gay’…
24/03/2014: Execution is really the BEST punishment (corporal ‘punishment’ whilst highly desirable, is a TRAINING aid). If the culprit has proved incapable of training, the universe deserves a chance to recycle their atoms to see if they can become something better next time!
24/03/2014: They WILL win the Nobel prize for THIS, the first detection of ‘gravitational waves’; its ramifications will be immense: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/03/17/faint-whispers-of-the-early-universe-detected-bolsters-the-cosmic-inflation-theory-aka-big-bang/#more-105413
23/03/2014: NEW sat image of the object in the Southern Ocean, only NOW its dimensions are 22.5m (compare 24m) long by 13 wide (compare 5m). The ONLY part of a plane this could be is the TAIL if it is turning over and over (likely). Of course, more likely than not it is something else entirely – but if it IS MH370, then it is almost certain that we have a case of pilot (murder and) suicide and that everyone else on board was dead when the plane climbed to 45,000’ right at the beginning of the hijack, alas! If they are not, then they will be found MUCH further away in the direction this debris has been drifting to (nearly 50km per day for this large object – so MUCH more for lighter ‘debris’ such as bodies, rafts, etc) That is , over 500 km AWAY from the current search area. The ‘body’ of the plane will be WAY back THATAWAY! Of course, if the plane broke in half fairly quickly the prospect of finding survivors is extremely slight, but it might not have. The ‘fact’ that authorities still hold out hope of survivors surely indicates Malaysian Airlines do not have Epirbs on their life-rafts, just another of their very dangerous follies. They should also still get a signal from the ‘black box’ – if they are VERY quick; its batteries are running out FAST! YOU can help look HERE: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/03/11/can-help-search-flight-mh370-tomnods-crowdsourced-satellite-image-platform-2/#!AWALE
23/03/2014: I KNOW there are folks out there who won’t like this, but here goes: I think we need to be more selective about citizenship: particularly we need to abolish the right of citizenship BY BIRTH, ie that being born on Australian territory AUTOMATICALLY confers citizenship. Surely WANTING to become a citizen is important, as are acceptance of Australian law, culture, history, marriage practices, mores etc, and a readiness to participate FULLY in all aspects of Australian life: eg manners, work, volunteerism, sport, obedience of the law, public schooling, a sense of shared values, a willingness to serve the public good, patriotism…those who REJECT this can (at best) be TEMPORARY residents (for whatever reasons - eg civil strife in their home countries, awaiting their punishment here before being deported/ostracised & etc) and ought not be provided with the full benefits of citizenship, eg the franchise, welfare safety net, common politeness, etc. EARNING citizenship, eg by public service (in the Defence forces, CFA, sport & recreation associations, Landcare, vermin control etc ) is surely not too fanciful a suggestion. We should have a mechanism for withdrawing citizenship from anyone (whether born here or not) – particularly for treasonous or anti-social behaviour, or a persistent desire to welch on the public purse – and even for deporting, repatriating or ostracising them. In extreme cases (such as spitting on the pavement, pushing in at the supermarket, arguing with elders/betters/policemen, cruelty to kittens…) etc I would reserve the DEATH PENALTY which should be carried out immediately with dispassion and WITHOUT recourse to appeal, the person’s relatives to cover the cost, clean up the mess and dispose of the body expeditiously on penalty of suffering the same! For ‘lesser’ offences such as an insistence on wearing funny clothes, bad haircuts, vile language, rudeness, being late for work, public drunkenness, etc, a sound public whipping delivered immediately by any available policeman, soldier or citizen ought to discourage loutish behaviour! I think prisons should generally be abolished: they should only ever be a temporary expedient for a couple of days at most while the offender awaits his/her trial, whipping, confiscation of property, deportation or execution. PS: NO trial should consume more than ONE FULL DAY and should take place the day of the offence or at most the day after (or in any case immediately the culprit is apprehended). Punishment, (PREFERABLY execution) should be carried out immediately. I am opposed to the dreadful cruelty implicit in having people wait around (in a fool’s paradise), or having human beings living in cages for protracted periods. It is also fanciful to think anyone else would WANT our rubbish, but (in fairness) people should be given a couple of days to see if anyone IS foolish enough! The carcasses of such unwanted felons should be harvested for organs to save the lives of citizens.
23/03/2014: Probably too late for them to reply now: http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/barbara-boland/deciphered-roman-soldier-s-papyrus-family-complains-you-never-wrote-back
23/03/2014: Try THIS at home: Shatter beer bottles: Martial arts for beer drinkers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77gWkl0ZUC8
22/03/2014:
MH370: Of course if the Iranian ‘illegals’ DID take the plane, eg so they could
duplicate and use its embargoed navigation systems in their next generation
ICBM’s (Israel still being the target), then we would not expect to hear
anything about it or the passengers and crew EVER again: they would be just
collateral damage in their anti-Semitic jihad! Not until the nukes start
falling on Tel Aviv and
22/03/2014: Do NOT expect me to start doing THIS: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/entertainment/2014/03/21/08/48/sellotape-selfies-go-viral
22/03/2014:
This is a VERY thoughtful article, (Dr Murray Walters is a
22/03/2014: May be a good time to buy some shares in Macdonalds and KFC: http://io9.com/scientists-fail-to-find-a-link-between-saturated-fat-an-1546275162
21/03/2014: They look like shipping containers to me. The longer one has a VERY rectangular shape and is exactly the right dimensions. Besides they are: 1. In an area where AMSAR admits there is 'usually' such debris, 2. Off the calculated course & 3. Why would someone 'double fuel' a plane and then fly it towards the South Pole until it ran out of fuel? Nuclear armed India and China just do not want to ADMIT that their radar missed an unidentified commercial airliner 'piggy-backing' a legitimate one, and so 'concealing' itself from surveillance!
21/03/2014: You would think the Greens and alternative people would stop smoking the stuff (to save the planet!): http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/pot-killing-planet.jpg
21/03/2014:
THIS is simply dreadful; the tyranny of the Left; the demagoguery of the
‘entitled’. On top of which I note that Eric Aarons (one of the ‘founding
fathers’ of the Communist Party in
21/03/2014: PJ O’Rourke: ‘Everybody by turns has libertarian impulses, “leave me alone,” and statist impulses, “please take care of me,” and anarchist moments, “the whole system is rigged, they’re all a bunch of bums…I’m not full of doom and gloom. We’ve faced bigger problems, and gotten through them.’ Interesting interview: http://www.humanevents.com/2014/01/31/p-j-orourke/
20/03/2014:
MH370: Correction: It WOULD have been possible for
ONE pilot (the co-pilot most likely) to have killed the pilot (eg by
strangulation or with the fire axe) AND killed everyone in the cabin by
depressurising it, then turned off all the systems after re-pressurising the
cabin. The passengers are dead only if the pilot depressurised the cabin, but
this would have also killed any terrorist in the cabin. However, the pilot who
is NOT flying the plane usually answers the radio. The co-pilot gave his last
cheerio minutes AFTER the plane changed course. The message was WRONG by
protocol, indicating perhaps he was trying to warn air traffic controllers, who
should have recognised this was so. He would also have expected to be tracked
by military radar and fighters scrambled to intercept the aircraft. The plane
was probably then being flown by the pilot (this is customary) under duress.
The most likely scenario is that the two (or more) eg Iranians hijacked the
plane, one storming the cockpit whilst meals were being served and the cockpit
door was opened, the other/s menacing passengers and crew (probably using 3D printed
plastic guns and bullets smuggled inside eg walking sticks, backpack frames
etc.) The plane flew over
20/03/2014:
Just re-visiting THIS graphic (which has informed
20/03/2014: A great hunting story; a reminder that there ARE still many wild places: http://standpointmag.co.uk/dispatches-january-february-2014-hunting-lynx-with-the-old-believers-ben-judah-tuva-siberia
20/03/2014: Quote of the week: ‘If I catch anyone molesting my daughter, there will only be one trial, mine.’ Larry Pickering: http://pickeringpost.com/story/judicial-injustice/2960
19/03/2014:
MH370: I see
19/03/2014: GREAT new Aussie built car (and without ANY Government subsidies) – hope they sell a million of them: http://www.tomcar.com.au/
19/03/2014: In other breaking news, socialists continue to evince surprise that firms which produce products people want to buy don’t need subsidies!
19/03/2014: ‘Eat the Rich’: The Papuans seemingly took the Left’s old adage rather literally: http://nypost.com/2014/03/15/how-a-young-rockefeller-died-at-the-hands-of-cannibals/
19/03/2014:
An interesting graphic of the borders of
18/03/2014: THAT would be right: Stanford Traditional Marriage Event Deemed ‘Hate Speech,’ Denied Funding: http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/16712/
18/03/2014: Ah, ‘The Age of Entitlement’ IN SPADES: ‘Rescued From Submerged Car, Ingrate Sues Rescuers’: http://moonbattery.com/?p=43335
18/03/2014: An excellent review of the great (Polish!) novelist Joseph Conrad (1857-1924). He had SUCH a turn of phrase and depth of perception (and all this genius in his THIRD language makes me feel tongue-tied!) eg, ‘Is there a spot on earth where such a man is unknown, an ominous survival testifying to the eternal fitness of lies and impudence? . . . He was the man that cannot steer, that cannot splice, that dodges the work on dark nights; that, aloft, holds on frantically with both arms and legs, and swears at the wind, the sleet, the darkness; the man who curses the sea while others work. The man who is the last out and the first in when all hands are called. The man who can’t do most things and won’t do the rest. The pet of philanthropists and self-seeking landlubbers. The sympathetic and deserving creature that knows all about his rights, but knows nothing of courage, of endurance, and of the unexpressed faith, of the unspoken loyalty that knits together a ship’s company. The independent offspring of the ignoble freedom of the slums full of disdain and hate for the austere servitude of the sea.’ http://www.city-journal.org/2014/24_1_joseph-conrad.html
17/03/2014:
Just looking at the circle of possible landing sites for MH370, I see that
17/03/2014:
Things you may not know:'...with the advent of the railroad, bags were about to
experience a revolution. In 1843, there were nearly 2000 miles of railway lines
in
17/03/2014: SOME of you may not be familiar with the ‘philosophical’ term MELIORISM (THINK: ‘ameliorate’); the meliorist insists that something ought to be done (often whilst the rest of us run around in circles crying, ‘The SKY is falling!’); the meliorists’ solutions are infrequently any better than ‘Chicken Little’s’! The Left is particularly fraught with meliorists, (hence the ‘nanny state’), but the disease HAS infected Conservative ranks too. SO pressing has the problem of meliorists become, that I am bound to say that something must be done about them!
17/03/2014:
MH370: Malaysia is NOW admitting that it had at least three radar ‘fixes’ on
MH370 as it flew West (in the first hour/s) with which they could plot it
course. They have also known for some time that it flew for @ 8 hours. Duration
of flight to
16/03/2014:
Correction: MH370 COULD have reached
16/03/2014:
MH370: Apparently you CAN glide and belly land a jet which has run out of fuel.
As the plane is known to have flown for over 8 hours (or approx the travel time
to
16/03/2014: Photoshop has gone too far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnvoz91k8hc&feature=youtu.be
16/03/2014: What an interesting website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/26433081
16/03/2014:
It was obvious that MH370 was piracy within hours of the plane disappearing
from its flight path. Malaysian military radar had tracked it before it left
their air space, so why has the Malaysian PM carried on with the farrago of the
last week? Good news (at last) I suppose for Anwar Ibrahim!
Security experts should have been reading Lee Falk’s c1940’ Phantom Comic ‘The
Sky Band’ where an aircraft was hijacked by just such attractive young women
and flown elsewhere (for the hostage value)! SHE would be MY first
suspect: Samantha Lewthwaite, the ‘white widow’ of
16/03/2014: ‘Forgotten’ folk singers, Jean Ritchie sings ‘Hangman’ & accompanies herself on the dulcimer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48bX-hBjVn4
16/03/2014:
Quote of the day: ‘Kimmel: "You once shot a coyote while jogging."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry: "True."
Kimmel: "You jog with a gun?"
Perry: "I do interviews with a gun."’
15/03/2014:
Where ARE the jokes about MH370? This has to be the most bizarre aviation disaster
in a long while: Good Heavens, there are even jokes about the
15/03/2014: Perhaps he thought he was a Yeti? Cat lovers should beware of Himalayans: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/03/aggravated_cat_is_subdued_by_p.html
15/03/2014: Reminiscent of Heinlein's 'The Door Into Summer'!
15/03/2014: Do you need to ask yourself THIS question: http://www.salon.com/2014/01/30/new_york_times_is_waxing_your_pubic_hair_declasse/ ? A couple of generations ago when I was young such Brazilian depilatory antics were the province only of Swiss finishing schools and bordellos, (I have it on good authority) Just as there are fashions in ‘To merkin, or not to merkin,’ there are fashions in ideas. Sometimes it is difficult to say what informs our ideation. Oft times alas, in the last century or so, it has been the musings of some Marxist philosopher, economist or historian which unwittingly informs our certitudes. ’First Principles’ are everything as they are the inception of all, so it behoves us to seek out and clarify the axia which motivate all our subsequent thoughts, not just slavishly (for example) bare our pudenda to the world! NOTHING at all follows from a false premise!
15/03/2014:
This poem, ‘
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
14/03/2014:
‘In January, Shorten and his wife Chloe travelled to
14/03/2014:
I imagine the same is likely true here (in that we have slavishly copied much
of
14/03/2014: Well said Gina & Pauline: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/gina-rinehart-hits-out-at-welfare-recipients-and-the-left-for-dragging-australia-into-debt/story-fni0cx12-1226847448435
13/03/2014:
THIS has been illegal in Oz & the
13/03/2014: The girl’s dad sounds a real charmer too: ‘“My daughter was not going to change her mind, I couldn’t talk her out of it,’’ he said. “Him being 26 was not a big concern to me because I was not marrying him. I was not happy with it but it was not my decision.”’ http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/not_his_problem/
13/03/2014: Unfortunately, he is NOT alone. We should stop importing and begin exporting this disgusting ‘culture’: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/shame-of-our-child-brides-court-hears-how-woman-was-raped-and-beaten-as-its-revealed-hundreds-are-forced-into-arranged-and-unregistered-marriages-across-nsw/story-fni0cx12-1226824176047
13/03/2014: AND, guess who else has a taste for young girls? ‘MORE than 3000 under-aged teens are married or in de facto marriages across the nation, according to data which reveals that the practice is most widespread in indigenous communities.’ Nicola Berkovic, The Australian, February 14, 2014. Let’s recognise THAT culture in our constitution, for sure!
13/03/2014: I like Tim Blair’s comment: ‘GENERATIONAL CHANGE:
1979: More than six million Australians were working.
2014: More than five million Australians are on welfare.’
13/03/2014: Everything you always wanted to know about SALT: http://junkscience.com/2014/03/02/salt-of-the-earth/#more-50749
12/03/2014: Listen UP folks: The Marcellus Shale is SUCH a boon to mankind: ‘Thanks to both purer heating oil in local buildings and the conversion of others to natural gas fracked along the Marcellus Shale, New York’s air has not been this clear in 50 years, officials say.…As former EPA EPA chief Lisa Jackson testified before Congress in May 2011: “I’m not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water…” it typically takes three gallons of water to produce 1 million British thermal units of energy from deep-shale natural gas/fracking. Atomic energy requires 11 gallons per million BTUs. Coal: 23 gallons. Corn ethanol? A whopping 15,800 gallons. And soy biodiesel requires nearly triple that amount: 44,500 gallons per million BTUs. That’s 14,833 times the water needed for fracking.’ http://junkscience.com/2014/03/07/deroy-talks-some-more-abou-the-marcellus-shale/#more-51334
12/03/2014: And, you thought the Greens were in favour of renewable energy: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/devastating-changes-allow-forests-to-be-burned-for-power-20140307-34bd5.html
12/03/2014: VERY true Christopher, ‘Green’ investments will sink your super account (Or, as they say, ‘Fine words butter no parsnips!’) I don’t mind so long as it’s YOUR money…it’s when you start throwing everyone else’s money at this nonsense my gorge rises: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/03/06/dont-put-your-pension-into-greens-mrs-worthington/
11/03/2014: If you like puzzles (and have some time to spare) you might like to try decyphering this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript
11/03/2014: Quote of the week: Stuart Schneiderman: 'Envy is the emotional core of deconstruction. Its opposite is a work ethic...Aquinas notes that it befalls someone who believes that someone else’s gain is his loss. It derives from seeing the world as a zero-sum game.' A very interesting article. We CAN become ‘our better selves’, or as Buddha notes ‘eliminate desire’ and so find happiness: http://stuartschneiderman.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/the-politics-of-envy.html
11/03/2014:
Maurice Newman had some telling points to make about the parlous state of
11/03/2014: 400 tigers today! Gee, thirty years ago I watched a documentary about some natives hunting a Sumatran tiger (this was back when there were only 200 of them!). They had to make their own guns out of car shockers, powered by match-heads (gunpowder being banned from civ hands in Indo), the lead bullets cast from fishing sinkers (only ONE shot). The guy had to keep a cigar burning in his mouth so he could 'touch off'’ the round. AND he bagged his tiger. Not a wink of it was wasted, not even the 'smile on the face of the tiger'! Magnificent achievement. THAT conservation has doubled the number of tigers, I see. Well done hunters!
10/03/2014:
Someone quipped to me just yesterday. ‘Old age is NOT for sissies!’ Boy, you’re
not just ‘whistling
10/03/2014: I think today is the last day here we will all be on 'FireWatch'. 1-2" of rain is on the way in two events in the next week following up on some rain we already had (albeit very locally) at Jeeralang Junction over the past ten days. I thought then, 'THIS is the autumn break' (ever an optimist!) but seems I was right! If it is, it is now safe to go away - perhaps to Dusky Sound! Also, the Hazelwood Open-cut fire is now 'under control' and should be out soon.
10/03/2014: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (George Santayana), and particularly in relation to 'Golden Rice'! Sometimes (well, rarely!) one forgets that the origins of the 'environmental movement' are pretty mucky: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/02/22/Ein-Volk-Ein-Reis-Ein-Fuehrer
09/03/2014: What a useful video: watch this girls: how to pick a lock with hairpins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjuT_63Ioig#t=318
09/03/2014: Rechargeable angle grinders are such a boon for DIYers and civil disobedience in general. We have troublesome druggy greenies live further up the road who have 'organised' their leftie bureacrat mates on the local Council (as such folks DO!) to have our road signposted @ 60 klicks. We live 1km up this road which goes for another 33km before it meets the next one - through either farmland or forest. This is the only public road outside a built-up area as far as I know which has anything other than a 100km speed limit. Lots of my neighbours must have rechargeable angle grinders too, as the signs disappear even before I get to them - I was hoping to acquire a collection of them, rather than speeding tickets!
09/03/2014: Interesting: the music of the spheres, perhaps: http://vimeo.com/6428069
09/03/2014: And you wonder why, this time of year I get a hankering to once again walk the Dusky Track:
09/03/2014: I have not watched this yet, but it sure looks interesting! Finally they are (again) making movies for us deaf folks! http://www.amazon.com/Into-Great-Silence-Two-Disc-Set/dp/B000OYNVOY
09/03/2014: Is there a ‘species’ which is MORE maligned than husbands? Germaine has SO much to answer for (and she never even had ONE!)! We work away quietly around the home (and away), then just as quietly PASS away - with scarcely a murmur…Can we really be the (imagined) monsters the feminists paint us? http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/02/22/your-husband-doesnt-have-to-earn-your-respect/
08/03/2014:
Spent a couple of days at our old campsite on the
08/03/2014: I’d guess we’ll want a couple (or more!) of these: http://themiraclemachine.net/
08/03/2014: I love this poem (much as I hate the war that stole the poet from us!) I so agree with the sentiment. It is the small acts of conservation count most. We have an archway I constructed 20+ years ago harbours many fine birds who are maybe our friends. The wrens and antechinus love the blackberries I labour to destroy. The pardalotes find a home in a raw bulldozer cut on the hillside. The sea eagles nest in the open cut, finding the cliffs to their liking. The peregrine sees the Station stacks as merely an eyrie. The whistling kites hunt the ‘pest’ tilapia in the Pondage. Marsh warblers sing from the cumbungi in the roadside drains. The thornbills love spiders in our old sheds. Many birds collect our sheep’s cast wool for their nests…life WILL find a way: we do not need vast National Parks to destroy with vicious wildfire. SUCH ‘conservation’ is folly:
Fifty Faggots: Edward Thomas 1878-1917
There
they stand, on their ends, the fifty faggots
That once were underwood of hazel and ash
In Jenny Pink's copse. Now, by the hedge
Close packed, they make a thicket fancy alone
Can creep through with the mouse and wren. Next spring
A blackbird or robin will nest there,
Accustomed to them, thinking they will remain
Whatever is for ever to a bird:
This Spring it is too late; the swift has come.
'Twas a hot day for carrying them up:
Better they will never warm me, though they must
Light several Winters' fires. Before they are done
The war will have ended, many other things
Have ended, maybe, that I can no more
Foresee or more control than robin and wren.
07/03/2014:
One thing (at least) I miss about the Hazelwood flats
farm were the skylarks, or pipits as they are known here; also the whistling
kites which I observed still hunting there yesterday, as I passed:
To a Skylark: Percy Bysshe Shelley:
Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains
of unpremeditated art.
Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springest
Like a cloud of fire;
The blue deep thou wingest,
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever
singest.
In the golden lightning
Of the sunken sun,
O'er which clouds are bright'ning,
Thou dost float and run;
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.
The pale purple even
Melts around thy flight;
Like a star of Heaven,
In the broad day-light
Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight,
Keen as are the arrows
Of that silver sphere,
Whose intense lamp narrows
In the white dawn clear
Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there.
All the earth and air
With thy voice is loud,
As, when night is bare,
From one lonely cloud
The moon rains out her beams, and Heaven is
overflow'd.
What thou art we know not;
What is most like thee?
From rainbow clouds there flow not
Drops so bright to see
As from thy presence showers a rain of melody.
Like a Poet hidden
In the light of thought,
Singing hymns unbidden,
Till the world is wrought
To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:
Like a high-born maiden
In a palace-tower,
Soothing her love-laden
Soul in secret hour
With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower:
Like a glow-worm golden
In a dell of dew,
Scattering unbeholden
Its a{:e}real hue
Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from
the view:
Like a rose embower'd
In its own green leaves,
By warm winds deflower'd,
Till the scent it gives
Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-winged
thieves:
Sound of vernal showers
On the twinkling grass,
Rain-awaken'd flowers,
All that ever was
Joyous, and clear, and fresh, thy music doth
surpass.
Teach us, Sprite or Bird,
What sweet thoughts are thine:
I have never heard
Praise of love or wine
That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.
Chorus Hymeneal,
Or triumphal chant,
Match'd with thine would be all
But an empty vaunt,
A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.
What objects are the fountains
Of thy happy strain?
What fields, or waves, or mountains?
What shapes of sky or plain?
What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of
pain?
With thy clear keen joyance
Languor cannot be:
Shadow of annoyance
Never came near thee:
Thou lovest: but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.
Waking or asleep,
Thou of death must deem
Things more true and deep
Than we mortals dream,
Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal
stream?
We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest
thought.
Yet if we could scorn
Hate, and pride, and fear;
If we were things born
Not to shed a tear,
I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.
Better than all measures
Of delightful sound,
Better than all treasures
That in books are found,
Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!
Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then, as I am listening
now.
07/03/2014: During the 2008 presidential campaign, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin warned that if Senator Barack Obama were elected president, his “indecision” and “moral equivalence” may encourage Russia’s Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine’: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/02/28/Flashback-Palin-Mocked-in-2008-for-Warning-Putin-May-Invade-Ukraine-if-Obama-Elected-President
07/03/2014:
TOUGH GUY:’ “President Obama made clear that Russia’s continued violation of
Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would negatively impact
Russia’s standing in the international community.” O DEAR! Now to frighten
07/03/2014: What a waste! Annabel Hepworth, ‘The Australian’: ‘ALMOST $7 billion of government funds have been ploughed into the National Broadband Network to complete just 3 per cent of the rollout and NBN Co’s much-vaunted “Gigabit Nation” service does not have a single end-user customer…It also emerged there was only one end customer on NBN Co’s 250 megabits-per-second service.’ It should be added: VDSL can deliver 100 megabits over copper wires at a tiny fraction of the cost AND that advanced DSL copper services delivering OVER a gigabyte have already been demonstrated!
6/03/2014: Hazelwood heroics: just a couple of snaps to indicate the scale of the fire-fighting operations. Best guess is they will have it out next week:
06/03/2014: QANTAS workers may soon join these interesting extinct occupations: http://izismile.com/2014/03/03/strange_jobs_throughout_history_that_are_now_extinct_22_pics.html
06/03/2014: Global ‘warming’ was so unlikely to have produced this interesting result: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2572681/Niagara-Falls-comes-frozen-halt-AGAIN-subfreezing-temperatures-freeze-millions-gallons-water-normally-flow-Falls.html
06/03/2014: GREAT speech Tony: ‘My carpenter granddad recruited me to help build a workbench for the new family home when I was in year seven. He joined me in building a timber canoe which I paddled around the Lane Cove River National Park in year eight ... and for my sixteenth birthday when I was in year ten he gave me a toolset which, until just a couple of years ago when it was lost in a flash flood at home, was still the tools which I used around the house…I can’t say that having a shipwright grandfather made me a craftsman ... but I did learn to appreciate the value of timber and the importance of working with one’s hands. I came to appreciate the forest wasn’t just a place of beauty, but it was a source of resources; of the ultimate renewable resource, of the ultimate biodegradable resource. So when I look out at an audience such as this this evening, when I look out tonight at an audience of people who work with timber, who work in forests, I don’t see people who are environmental bandits, I see people who are the ultimate conservationists. That’s what I see and I want to salute you. I salute you as people who love the natural world, as people who love what Mother Nature gives us and who want to husband it for the long-term best interests of humanity. I want to say this: we will never build a strong economy by trashing our environment, but we will never help our environment by trashing the economy either. You understand - what I regret to say not everyone does – that it is possible to combine respect for the environment and respect for nature with healthy private business. Man and the environment are meant for each other. The last thing we do – the last thing we should want – if we want to genuinely improve our environment is to want to ban men and women from enjoying it, is to ban men and women from making the most of it and that’s what you do. You intelligently make the most of the good things that God has given us. So my friends, when I say that I want Australia to be open for business, I mean open for business for the forestry industry…Greg Hunt [is] an Environment Minister who appreciates that the environment is meant for man and not just the other way around…We don’t support, as a Government and as a Coalition, further lockouts of our forests. We just don’t support it. We have quite enough National Parks, we have quite enough locked up forests already. In fact, in an important respect, we have too much locked up forest,’ to the Forest Works Dinner.
05/03/2014:
WELL DONE
05/03/2014: WELCOME folks: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/dog-killing-afghan-refugee-to-swedes-throw-me-out-and-ill-kill-10-of-you-video/
05/03/2014: You WOULD hope he wins…this is JUST SHOCKING: ‘Man sues McDonald´s for $1.5 million after being given only one napkin’: http://lucianne.com/thread/?artnum=774329
04/03/2014: My ‘Clearviewers’ arrived and they certainly ARE the solution to having difficulty taking photos with digital cameras. I think they make a better viewfinder than conventional cameras. http://www.clearviewer.com/Products.html
04/03/2014: Finkielkraut: ‘Like Albert Camus, I am of the opinion that our generation’s task is not to recreate the world, but to prevent its decline. We not only have to conserve nature, but also culture.’ http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-french-philosopher-finkielkraut-on-muslims-and-integration-a-937404.html
04/03/2014: PROGRESS: ‘Mr Morrison said... 171 asylum-seekers had gone home voluntarily since the Coalition won government in September…no people-smuggling boats had made it to Australia in the past 71 days...There were 1325 asylum-seekers in the centre on Manus Island and 1107 on Nauru.’ Brendan Nicholson: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/refugees-seek-to-return-home-in-latest-week/story-fn9hm1gu-1226841337078#
04/03/2014: A VERY fair point (and especially considering the period of ‘global cooling’ which preceded both was LONGER than both): ‘Even worse for the theory of catastrophic, anthropogenic (human caused), global warming is that during this now extended period of no global warming mankind’s emissions of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that are supposed to be predominant in causing global warming continued to explode, with one third of all CO2 added to the atmosphere since the industrial revolution occurring during this period. Yuri Nagovitsyn,…from the St. Petersburg Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory…“we could be in for a cooling period that lasts 200-250 years.”’ http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2014/02/24/the-period-of-no-global-warming-will-soon-be-longer-than-the-period-of-actual-global-warming/
03/03/2014: Hiking food, an occasional series: if you are an omnivore like me, you probably have at least occasional lusts for venal delights (hiking food, folks!) The trick to satisfying these is to do so without spoilage/food poisoning…’Hans Twiggies’ are a staple with us (eg chopped & added to ‘Four Cheeses’ pasta) as they require no refrigeration. We have become concerned about the salamis issue since the Tibaldi & etc episodes. Sachets of tuna are good also, as is jerky. We have recently ‘discovered’ ‘Chinese Sausage’ which is vacuum packed and needs no refrigeration until it is opened. It is also fatty enough you can fry it without oil which is a handy trick in the wilderness. Adding it to various dehydrated meals makes them much tastier. I recommend them with Ainsley Harriot’s Lentil Dahl with a side of Continental Mash (with onions) and Surprise Peas, for example. PS Continental ‘Tuna Mornay’ dehydrated packet sauce goes well with a sachet of tuna, two minute noodles & Surprise Peas’. There you are: THREE fine hiking dinners, enough for a four day trip. Enjoy!
03/03/2014: Evidently gals have more to worry about from ‘global warming’ as the following headline attests: ‘Study: Global Warming Will Cause 180,000 More Rapes by 2099’. Whoops! Sexism showing. Guys are sometimes raped too. When will this madness end? http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/climate-change-murder-rape
03/03/2014: Indeed! I have long advocated for the introduction of beavers (and the promotion of willows and aspens) for the self-same reason: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/29/beavers-dam-flooding-owen-paterson
02/03/2014: Further to my post about ‘The Perfectability of Man’, surely the vast majority of us would prefer to live in a society of GOOD PEOPLE? It is equally certain that the first duty of Government is to ensure that we do. There should be zero tolerance of bad behaviour and crime. If bad folks are eliminated swiftly, before they have a chance to breed, this outcome (a good society) can be achieved swiftly. NOW, consider what we do instead: reward the bad, and PAY them to breed. This is against all common sense. Only the criminally insane treat even their pets thus, so why are WE wasting time and money on faux human beings who are LESS than worthless or downright evil?
02/03/2014: Have seen the ‘Australis’ betimes in NZ. Sure a spectacular phenomenon: http://laughingsquid.com/the-incredible-beauty-of-the-ovation-aurora-borealis/
02/03/2014:
It’s a great headline, BUT has nothing at all to do with naked women: ‘Wild
beavers seen in
Two
beavers were caught on camera playing at night while a third one (in
background) is gnawing a tree on the banks of the River Otter,
02/03/2014: This headline also, is not quite what it appears to be (whilst still arguing powerfully AGAINST the ‘nanny state’: http://hotair.com/archives/2014/02/26/new-loathsome-nanny-state-initiative-banning-bottomless-brunches/
29/02/2014: Television is SUCH a powerful medium which could do SO much – yet in all my life there has only been ONE programme dealing with ‘The Perfectability of Man’!
29/02/2014: Just hate it when I’m out at the shopping centre, happen to catch a glimpse of someone’s reflection in a window, think, ‘O dear, look at that poor old bloke,’ and then realise it is ME.
29/02/2014: College students sure aren’t what they used to be…or perhaps they ARE, ‘Dice has now successfully managed to persuade Americans in his area to agree to repeal the First, Second, Third, Fourth , Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Amendments, as well as the entire Bill Of Rights’: http://www.infowars.com/students-sign-petition-to-have-gun-owners-executed-in-concentration-camps/
29/02/2014: A brief ‘history’ of schooling…whereas today in Germany…a judge recently ordered that parents may not have custody of their children because “the family might move to another country and homeschool, posing a ‘concrete endangerment’ to the children”! http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2014/01/13/prussian-system/
28/02/2014: I have lamented before that the awful Gillard/Shorten contest spelled the demise of Martin Ferguson, one of the LAST decent human beings in the Labor Party and almost certainly THE last cool head. Today he is forcefully arguing that union work practices are a threat to the country. Will anyone else on the Left of politics join him? http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/martin-ferguson-backs-tony-abbott-on-ir-law-changes/story-fn59noo3-1226840049716#
28/02/2014: An excellent article: ‘The “modern” system that we have adopted with its low birth rates, high social spending and retirement benefits is at odds with itself. We can have low birth rates, deficit spending or Social Security; but there is no possible way that we can have all three.’ Minds me of THIS couplet from the great poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias (‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!' cf http://www.online-literature.com/shelley_percy/672/ ) http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/the-coming-collapse-of-the-welfare-state/
28/02/2014: A MUST READ: Greenpeace FOUNDER, Patrick Moore’s address to the US Senate: (PS: Every word here is TRUE): ‘When modern life evolved over 500 million years ago, CO2 was more than 10 times higher than today, yet life flourished at this time. Then an Ice Age occurred 450 million years ago when CO2 was 10 times higher than today. There is some correlation, but little evidence, to support a direct causal relationship between CO2 and global temperature through the millennia. The fact that we had both higher temperatures and an ice age at a time when CO2 emissions were 10 times higher than they are today fundamentally contradicts the certainty that human-caused CO2 emissions are the main cause of global warming... Today we remain locked in what is essentially still the Pleistocene Ice Age, with an average global temperature of 14.5°C. This compares with a low of about 12°C during the periods of maximum glaciation in this Ice Age to an average of 22°C during the Greenhouse Ages, which occurred over longer time periods prior to the most recent Ice Age. During the Greenhouse Ages, there was no ice on either pole and all the land was tropical and sub-tropical, from pole to pole. As recently as 5 million years ago the Canadian Arctic islands were completely forested. Today, we live in an unusually cold period in the history of life on earth and there is no reason to believe that a warmer climate would be anything but beneficial for humans and the majority of other species. There is ample reason to believe that a sharp cooling of the climate would bring disastrous results for human civilization.’ http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/26/confessions-of-a-greenpeace-droput-to-the-u-s-senate-on-climate-change/#more-103850
28/02/2014: The Soviet Union ended on (Australia Day!) 26 December 1991, yet the Labor Party and trade unions still hanker after soviet ‘solutions’ to all our problems: eg the Government should take control, jobs (rorts, work practices, industries) should be ‘protected’, opponents should be silenced, there should only be one (state run) medium, private enterprise (and religion – other than their own green/left kind) are evil and should be abolished, traditions are backwards and must be swept away…I’m sure you can add to the list.
27/02/2014:
Folks like us who live in the ‘borderlands’ of their electorate never know
quite which electorate they ARE in as the AEC adjusts the borders of the House of
Reps between every election to keep them as nearly equal in voter numbers as
possible. No such adjustment is done to the states as electorates for the
Senate, where the grossest gerrymander occurs.
27/02/2014: This de facto widowerhood (whilst Della is craftily Halls Gapping) is not all it’s cracked up to be - as I spiral into eccentric extremis: I sashayed into Morwell without my hearing aids this morning (which would never happen if there was someone at home to talk to) and was continually surprised at strange distant whispered comments from folks who were not two feet away, and whom I did not know were addressing me (most confusing). Then tonight, I have spent the last few hours wearing my shirt inside out…O, woe is me!
27/02/2014: Before the 2007 election DFAT warned THIS (and worse) would happen. Krudd echoed the Immigration Minister Kevin Andrew’s intention to restrict immigration of these good folks, but once in power he flooded the country with them (and other undesirables – as if we didn’t have enough of our own home-grown thugs already just crying out to be used as spare parts!) We HAVE to turn off the tap, then implement some forcible repatriation before we no longer have a country: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/world/the-horrible-moment-lewis-gill-kills-andrew-young-with-a-single-punch/story-fnihsmjt-1226838177181
27/02/2014: GK Chesterton once said there was scarcely a shade of difference left between meaning well and meaning nothing.
26/02/2014: There ARE people who question the importance of ‘Question Time’. Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘performance’ today re the ‘Conroy train wreck’ is masterful, and should leave little doubt there IS fun to be had yet in this Parliament. DO watch; you will laugh yourself silly as did most of the members on BOTH sides of the House: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfZfB9dS_vk
26/02/2014: Windfall winners: all sorts of critters come to our larder (orchard) most times of the year. Lots of native critters (possums, parrots, currawongs, etc) have quite insufficient fear and loathing of ‘introduced’ plants such as apple/pear trees; they are like to leave US nothing. Here a kitten rabbit just outside our bedroom window fattens himself for the pot (!) on an apple, and our aged JR, Tiny has been gorging on a windfall pear. Evidently pears too are soporific:
26/02/2014:
In ‘quick work’, police have apparently finally admitted that the current fires
here are the work of a serial arsonist. Duh! Four arsonists have been
apprehended for setting HUGE disastrous fires around here in the last ten years
or so. (Living here has become rather like being Londoners enduring the
‘Blitz’). One arsonist is serving a life sentence for the Churchill fire which
killed 9 people (and came within 300 metres of our house). One is before the
courts at the moment for the Aberfeldy fire which killed one person. Two people
were dealt with lightly by the courts for the Driffield fire. One was let off
for the Boolarra fire which came close to destroying the town and destroyed our
friends’ sheds and orchards. No-one was caught for lighting the
The fire came VERY close to destroying the coal bunkers (building on the left of the chimneys) which would have shut the station down for a long time (months/years) and deprived Vic of 25% of its electricity. It DID damage some conveyors, but heroic power station staff have kept all eight generators running (at the risk of their LIVES) while this inferno swirled around them - And here I have been opining they are over-paid!
26/02/2014: In further news, you would think the Greens would be right on to this one: apparently ‘asylum seekers’ have introduced a new invasive species (of gecko – not themselves!) Surely this is sufficient reason (in itself) for ‘stopping the boats’? http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/02/memo-to-the-greens-wheres-the-outrage-introduced-vermin-ruining-ci-ecosystem-courtesy-of-the-illegal.html
26/02/2014: Similarly, wind & solar power are so ‘good’ for wildlife, it is now wonder Greens are so in favour of them. Mind you the MILLIONS of birds and bats being killed by them might not agree: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/11/15/study-shows-wind-turbines-killed-600000-bats-last-year/ & http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/13/the-2-2-billion-bird-scorching-solar-project-at-californias-ivanpah-plant/#more-103171
25/02/2014: Worth knowing: T-rex would need to consume @ one ten year old child per day in order to survive. I'm sure we have all known at least one of the latter who would best be utilised in this way (Think: little brother/sister!) Alternatively each T-rex would need about 80 Big Macs, so even a small town could support a few: http://what-if.xkcd.com/78/
25/02/2014: Little known fact: Cedara Agricultural Development Institute's Applied Ruminant Nutrition for Dairy Cows: 'Cows on a typical dairy ration can produce 80 to 100 litres of saliva per day.' You NEEDED to know that!
25/02/2014:
Quote of the day: Freeeman Dyson, the greatest living
physicist: 'The worst political blunder in the history of civilization was probably
the decision of the emperor of China in the year 1433 to stop exploring the
oceans and to destroy the ships capable of
exploration and the written records of their voyages. In no way can this
blunder be called brilliant. Before the decision,
25/02/2014: Oh, Yeah: ‘My "problem" - if it is a problem - is that I instinctively rebel whenever a government tries to tell me that they are doing something for my own good. As red-blooded Americans, we know that government is mostly made up of self-important jackasses who couldn't run a candy store and who surely should not be running my life in any way. I can do that myself, just fine.’ (Maggie’s Farm)
25/02/2014: HOW THINGS WORK: the 1911 .45 – you’ve probably seen thousands of these fired on movies over the years, but have you ever wondered what makes it tick? Also see ‘How a Car Engine Works’: http://animagraffs.com/how-a-handgun-works-1911-45/
25/02/2014:
Until c1930 nearly all of
24/02/2014: Michael Marshall, New Scientist a5/02/2014: ‘Female preying mantises are famous for devouring their lovers…Males are large compared with other food items, so they’re nutritious. The females often go for the male’s head first…removing the male’s sexual inhibitions and causing him to mate for longer…’ Girls, these mantids might just be on to something here!
Female Chinese mantis eats a male copulating with her
24/02/2014: Sadly, James Delingpole will blog no more. His final post was a beauty though: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100259000/watching-lions-eat-a-giraffe-is-a-family-day-out/
24/02/2014: EDWARD SNOWDEN helped these ‘gentle’ folks out, yet there remain crazy touch-feely types in Oz who can’t see that he should be executed, not celebrated: http://somalilandsun.com/index.php/world/somalia/5029-somalia-powerless-to-stop-al-shabaab-mobile-internet-shutdown#chitika_close_button
23/02/2014: No matter WHAT Della says, I am NOT going to get bees: http://laughingsquid.com/artist-collaborates-with-honey-bees-to-create-fascinating-beeswax-covered-sculptures/
23/02/2014: Our forecast for today: ‘Smoke’! http://ozforecast.com.au/cgi-bin/weather.cgi?station=Jeeralang+Junction.VIC
23/02/2014: Some interesting recipes HERE to try: http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/21404-The-Maggies-Farm-Classic-Mommys-of-America-Cheap-n-Easy-Winter-Supper-Cookbook.html
23/02/2014: The small survey I recently completed on the ‘moon illusion’ convinced me that rather more folks here not only do not know the earth orbits the sun; they still believe the earth is flat: http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/1-in-4-americans-dont-know-earth-orbits-the-sun-yes-really-140214.htm
23/02/2014:
A number of businesses (eg Hughes) are working at installing internet satellite
systems which will get around the NBN and various Government’s nasty pernickety
restrictions. THIS system will be a real game changer for the
22/02/2014: A VERY worrying development: http://www.latrobevalleyexpress.com.au/story/2106198/gigantic-crack-appears-in-hazelwood-mine/
22/02/2014: We have had an inch and a half of rain (37mm in French!) over the last 36 hours but air quality in Morwell has become worse (because of the inversion, and because it has made the fire smokier) peaking at an EPA reading of over 1,000 (when 500 is considered hazardous!) Fortunately WE live 8km away where it’s not so bad, but I am really feeling for my son (Bryn) and many other people we know who live IN Morwell. I guess they will live through it, but it is NOT pleasant. Mind you I am reminded that Della’s dear mum (Dorothy) lived through many such London ‘pea soup’ smogs AND the London Blitz, the death of her father (from TB) at 13, and many other vicissitudes (exiting gracefully and eventually @91!) She told us that when she used to become a little despondent - watching buzz-bombs fly by her double decker bus on the way to work, witnessing hundreds of people drowning in a basement shelter right across the road, her house being blown away while they hid in the ‘Andersen Shelter’ in the backyard (& etc) – her old mum (both were truly TINY women) used to tell her, ‘Just get ON with it, Dorothy’ (or words to that effect). They WERE made of sterner stuff.
22/02/2014: The ‘Steve’ in this article was not me, (I’m pretty sure!) though I take criticism poorly (but I AM well armed!) I have to admit I never grew up with oceans of praise for things which were not at all noteworthy, indeed I have had to do quite a lot of hard graft often without any praise at all that I can remember (Just ‘life’, ‘duty’, etc) The article sounds an excellent warning though, I think: http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/02/18/learn-how-to-take-criticism-or-be-prepared-to-fail-at-life/
22/02/2014:
It IS astonishing that these ‘Green’ folks have managed to arrange a (Virtual
ban) on wood stoves. They have succeeded here and in NZ too at least insofar as
you are not allowed to install a chimney damper which is what makes the stove
conserve wood and put out lots of heat. If you have a stove which is really
churning through the wood (Read: several times as much) and not even warm
enough to boil the billy on (like all the new stoves they have installed in the
hiking huts in Fiordland!) get on to eBay and buy a damper (from
22/02/2014:
While I am on the subject of GREEN EVIL, did you know that the wonderful
‘organic’ farming practices employed in
21/02/2014: Craig will receive a minimum five year term by the looks. How long will Julia get when HER case finally comes to court – probably towards the end of this year? At least TEN, I would think!
21/02/2014: ‘Why did Julia cross the road?’ – because she said she wouldn’t!
21/02/2014: THIS looney idea is what the Club of Rome thought back in the 70’s, "The earth has a cancer; the cancer is man". Trouble is such eco-quackery has become almost mainstream – at least to the extent that it is now deemed bad manners to guffaw at such folk at dinner parties, or propose that there should be an ‘open season’ on THEM (which there should!) For example, I am simply horrified at the number of what ought to be sensible folks crying out against WA’s shark culling: sharks which have been enabled to breed up quite uncontrollably (because of bans on whaling, shark fishing, etc) and which have been TRAINED to target humans as food which is what the eco-tourism industry HAS been doing! In my opinion ‘shark cages’ where a diver PAYS to be attacked by a shark inflamed by a burley of blood and guts just for a ‘photo-op’ ought to be banned - as should ANY human feeding of (wild) sharks. Obviously sharks which have been thus trained NEED to be eliminated from the oceans. These are dangerous critters at the best of times and far better suited ON THE PLATE than at the beach! http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/02/18/humans-or-sharks
21/02/2014: ‘How many economists does it take to change a light bulb? None. When the one they used in graduate school goes out, they sit in the dark.’: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/02/17/the_lights_go_out_on_the_dismal_science_121596.html
20/02/2014: 21mm of lovely rain here overnight, and only 14C @ 9:00am this morning. Hopefully THAT gives the ‘firies’ in the open-cut some relief!
20/02/2014:
Quote of the day: ‘Just this morning we were thinking about the former Special
Advisor for Green Jobs,
20/02/2014: Grace Collier’s fine article on how Labor and the unions destroyed Alcoa is paywalled at ‘The Australian’, but you can read a fair bit of it here. An excerpt: ‘the $40 million of our money given to Alcoa in June 2012 has gone “down the tube”. Alcoa spent a lot of money on three new enterprise bargaining agreements… Thanks to the EBAs, perhaps up to half of the $40m was committed to cash pay rises and flow-on labour costs. The rest may go towards the closure bill, estimated by Alcoa as between $250m and $270m. Roughly divided, this equates to a budget of $250,000 to $270,000 in redundancy pay and associated benefits for each employee…Under the life of that EBA, the entry-level wage for a continuous seven-day shift worker was hiked from $82,106 annually to $91,571 by 2015. The wage for an experienced continuous seven-day shift worker went from $119,334 annually to $133,092 in 2015.’ This RIP-OFF was on top of Labor DOUBLING electricity prices: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/how_labor_blew_40_million_on_its_favorite_union/
20/02/2014: ‘Suppose that we were supplied with groceries in same way that we are supplied with K-12 education…’: http://cafehayek.com/2011/04/grocery-school.html
20/02/2014: Interesting facts about whales: ‘There are bowhead whales still alive in arctic that were born long before Moby Dick was written in 1851…Thirty four years ago, scientists counted 1,200 (bowhead) whales. Today there are about 14,000 of the mammals out there.’ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/there-are-whales-alive-today-who-were-born-before-moby-dick-was-written-660944/#.UwFWUVflt8s.twitter
19/02/2014:
Just been in to Midvalley. The air quality was AWFUL. Had difficulty seeing
from one end of Bunnings' store to the other, INSIDE! It is bad enough here
(Jeeralang Junction/Yinnar) and has me coughing and eye-watering, but I don't
think I would survive living in Morwell at the moment. This is (probably) the
greatest disaster in
19/02/2014:
HERE, Steyn makes some other telling points, such as this quote from Walter
Williams, ‘There is no material poverty in the
19/02/2014:
Reading Steyn’s Shirley obit I have to agree, SHE WAS remarkable. As he says,
she could sing, dance AND act- a rare
combination AND she went on to have a REAL life, not some drugged disaster like
so many
19/02/2014:
‘Global Warming’ flooding in
18/02/2014: I had noticed this particularly in relation to the internet ‘phenomenon’ known as ‘Unfriending’. (Particularly young) folks of a leftist persuasion seem most likely to perform this ungenerous ‘trick’. Seems they would rather see legislation to enforce their ideas than have to defend them. I have had a number of young folks do this to me: one whom I have known well since birth has 651 ‘friends’ but I am no longer one of them. Apparently she (they) just cannot stand to read views which they do not (presently) share (unaware that they WILL grow up!) In contrast people of a more conservative disposition such as myself read all their leftist rants AND do my best to counter them with argument and example: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/thomas-sowell/leftists-for-the-people/
18/02/2014: Millionaire (?) Clive PALMER looks headed for bankruptcy, in which case he forfeits his seat in Parliament with who knows what (?) other interesting consequences…
18/02/2014: Yet another great parrot: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=627319517340658&set=vb.388525541220058&type=3&theater
18/02/2014:
Many examples of undecyphered runes exist in Greenland and
Two men, Sigurd and Lavrans, carved their names both
in code and in standard runes on this stick, dated from the 13th century and
found at the
17/02/2014: If you can't see to take photos with your digital camera THIS may be the answer: http://www.clearviewer.com/Products.html
17/02/2014: Just in case you THOUGHT there aren’t enough stupid people in the world, get this: GRENADE fishing gone wrong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vw7T2yhFek
17/02/2014: There ARE other kinds of heroes: Saving one’s country is all very well, but saving your wife’s garden has to rate too! I have just spent most of two days in the heat devising & implementing a method which rescued the water that was leaking from our dam: enough to run sprinklers for over an hour per day. Also connected the top dam (which is on a spring) to the downstream pump providing perhaps another hour of watering - just when we thought the garden was certain to die!
17/02/2014:
The view from the front gate our old farm (Dobbins Hill sold 2003) yesterday
afternoon on our way back from our walk. We always used to have to nudge people
out of the way to get in: the view across the valley to the Baw Baws was so
spectacular. The fire in the open cut has clearly become even bigger. It must
now stretch for kilometres around the whole Eastern end. Firefighters have been
prevented from doing much down there because of the CO risk (there was even a
‘Stay Inside!’ alert issued to all Morwell West End residents yesterday because
of this risk). I suspect it will not be possible to extinguish this fire until
there are several inches of heavy rain on it – perhaps not even then, as coal
seams can burn in the absence of oxygen. These TWO open cut fires certainly
rank as National Disasters. THREE generators are at risk from it (Hazelwood,
Yallourn , Morwell) representing nearly half of Vic’s electricity supply! The
longer it burns the more difficult it will be to put out as it will undermine
the surfaces and burrow deeper in to the seams. Mt Wingen near
Muswellbrook in the
17/02/2014:
850,000 year old footprints discovered on a beach in
16/02/2014:
Unfortunately
16/02/2014:
In another twist Vic police have raided the
16/02/2014: Instead of ‘dying for a cause’ Della is today ‘dyeing for a course’ as she prepares herself to give me a foretaste of widowerhood by taking herself off to a week-long gabfest of arty-crafty doings in Horsham next week
16/02/2014: Della: ‘BEWARE!’: Everything you always wanted to know about GIN: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/02/05/a-mans-primer-on-gin/
16/02/2014: It SURE is getting crowded up there: http://theknow.ask.com/there-are-how-many-dead-bodies-on-mount-everest?utm_source=outbrain&utm=referral
15/02/2014:
Human DNA has some interesting stories to tell. Previously historians believed
the Bushmen were one of the most isolated human populations. DNA NOW tells us
that they received an infusion of European and Neanderthal DNA (together)
between 900-3,000 years ago. This would indicate a previously unknown Viking or
Greco-Roman colony in
15/02/2014: No boats for eight weeks, yet stopping the boats can’t be done? What else can’t be done?
15/02/2014: Compares very favourably with Labor's record: 820 boats arrived carrying 51,870 asylum-seekers and more than 1200 others (that we know of) drowned at sea…
15/02/2014: Not in front of the children and DEFINITELY not in front of the parrot: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/82447336/
14/02/2014: I notice that my dear departed aunt Emmeline Valentine Jones (after whom ‘Valentine’s Day’ was named – or possible it was the other way around) would have been 107 today - had she not been taken from us prematurely. She was (as my mother described her on her own deathbed), ‘a lovely woman’. Here she is in c1917 with her aunt, Emily who was annoyed Emmeline had begun to draw in the (coal) soot of the railway carriage on the way to the studio with her finger and had wiped it on the front of her sock, so spoiling the pic as Emily thought - but providing US with an interesting family anecdote. Emily too was taken prematurely at age 35, and HER mother (Emeline) also at age 63 - Gone, but not forgotten, as Marius's inscription on her tombstone heart-wrenchingly reveals, ‘Love’s last token.’
14/02/2014: Well done Cameron Baird, our 100th VC winner: an excellent commemorative speech by our PM in announcing his award ‘we salute…the extraordinary courage of these amazing men who serve our country, and keep us safe’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r960Ezgs-dI&feature=youtu.be
14/02/2014: Except for the usefulness of beards, I guess this would work for women too: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/02/07/how-to-survive-falling-through-the-ice-an-illustrated-guide/
14/02/2014: Water on Mercury, water on the moon, water on Mars: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/11/flowing-water-on-mars-appears-likely-but-hard-to-prove/
14/02/2014:
This reminds me so much of the James Price Point decision (the Ford, Holden,
13/02/2014: TRACTOR square dancing: this is for real! About 21 minutes in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx7xGnXxvZ0
13/02/2014: This HONEST unionist (Yes, there ARE some!) has been waiting twenty years for justice. Here’s his advice to Bill Shorten, whom he knows is CLOSELY associated with union corruption: http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/02/media-statement-from-bob-kernohan-former-victorian-awu-president.html
13/02/2014: BEST solar energy storage yet: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/11/solar-energy-storage-a-gift-from-gaia/
13/02/2014:
Australian car makers have been living on subsidies and borrowed time since
1974 when manufactured vehicle units peaked at 498,000. That figure has slowly
fallen to less than 200,000 last year despite a rapidly increasing population.
‘
12/02/2014: Farewell, Little Princess: http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-shirley-temple-black-20140211,0,1264780.story#axzz2t0xALTlF
12/02/2014: Some MORE reasons for taking up e-cigarettes: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/will-a-nicotine-patch-make-you-smarter-excerpt/
12/02/2014: MORE on the ‘moon illusion’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXkYjL_7jME#t=239
11/02/2014: And NOW for the GOOD news: ‘A group of Sunni militants attending a suicide bombing training class at a camp north of Baghdad were killed on Monday when their commander unwittingly conducted a demonstration with a belt that was packed with explosives, army and police officials said.’ 22 dead, 15 wounded. Not a BAD score! http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/world/middleeast/suicide-bomb-instructor-accidentally-kills-iraqi-pupils.html?_r=0
11/02/2014:
Good advice: Piers Akerman: ‘Have a tortilla for me at Mi Tierra in
11/02/2014: I see six ‘asylum seekers’ have shown their gratitude to their new country by raping a fourteen year old girl in a Sydney park…There are so many decent Aussies needing spare parts from just such healthy donors to save their lives…
11/02/2014: ‘COMMUNITY leaders have warned of possible reprisal attacks by Blacktown’s Pacific Islander community targeting young African-Australian men in the wake of the gang-rape attack on a 14-year-old Islander girl.’ http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/community-leaders-appeal-for-calm-after-race-hate-revenge-fears-following-gangrape-of-14yearold-girl-in-doonside/story-fni0cx12-1226823057102
11/02/2014: Ben Packham in The Australian: ‘IN his former life as a union leader, Bill Shorten led SPC Ardmona workers on a six-day strike during the harvest season, winning them an extra eight days "leisure time''. Amid debate over the workers' enterprise agreement and its role in the company's financial woes, a 2004 press release has emerged in which the now-Opposition Leader claimed to have changed SPC working conditions "forever''.’ WELL DONE Bill. And let’s hear how you helped out Holden & Ford too!
11/02/2014: These union THUGS are NUTS: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/toyota-workers-launch-legal-action-to-save-entitlements/story-fn59noo3-1226817387341#
10/02/2014: Just HANG in there: RAIN IS COMING; autumn is coming...the GFS has 26 mm here on Sunday with the rain beginning Thurs-Fri! Even OUR BOM has some rain coming: http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/watl/rainfall/pme.jsp
10/02/2014:
WHY do footballers wear ‘jerseys’. Why this insane prejudice against Friesians,
10/02/2014: And you don’t THINK we need a Royal Commission: Henry Ergas: ‘AFTER the 1983 election, when half the Australian workforce were union members, barely a third of the ALP’s new MPs thanked the unions in their maiden speech. By the 2013 election, union membership had fallen below 20 per cent of the workforce; but more than 90 per cent of Labor’s new MPs devoted part of their first speech to praising the union movement…’
10/02/2014: Meanwhile, the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse has declared that paedophiles will be charged with sex discrimination offences unless some come forward admitting to having had sexual relations with girls…
10/02/2014: Happy anniversary Della: 41 BEAUTIFUL years! Sorry if a little bit of fire and smoke prevents me taking you out to tea. I promise you a rain check!
10/02/2014: In Vic we employ 15-20,000 ‘green’ folk in our Dept of ‘Sustainability’ & Parks Vic, and heaps more in Metropolitan Fire Brigades all on huge salaries, with weekends (like this) off and enormous superannuation. Why, many will be on leave at a time each year when fire is most likely to strike. Meanwhile Vic burns! And VOLUNTEERS and farmers like us are pretty much all that stands between our lives and horrible death. All around US there are ‘good’ green folk on ‘environmental living’ blocks let run to weeds and tinder (none of whom is in the CFA it goes without saying!) Next door two greenies have ‘conserved’ dozens of acres of grass all summer. Others behind us have ‘conserved’ hundreds of acres of vermin and weed infested rubbishy regrowth, a vast powder keg, leaving us to fight the conflagration that threatens to explode any minute from their (subsidised) green madness. O, how I hate the Greens!
09/02/2014: I asked several people today whether they thought the moon was bigger when it first appears on the horizon or whether it was an optical illusion. Without wanting to spoil the answer for you, I should like to report that a number of people were sure that it WAS closer when it was near the horizon. These flat-earth advocates no doubt also eat organic food because it contains no chemicals and totally eschew di-hydrogen monoxide!
09/02/2014:
Trouble is, I never did eat canned fruit; probably haven’t eaten canned peaches
since I was a kid in the 50’s or early 60’s. Australian canneries continued
with a business model which dated from the era of ‘imperial preference’ –
BEFORE
09/02/2014: All my life labour productivity in Australia has increased by over 2% per annum which means that it has doubled in less than 36 years meaning one worker now produces what took TWO thirty years ago – yet thirty years ago we could afford to pay men over 65 and women over 60 the aged pension. Even though the aged have increased slightly as a percentage of the population, increases in labour productivity ought to easily cover the cost. WHY are today’s workers expected to continue (men and women both) to age 67 or older. This is an increase for half the population of seven years of work. THAT is some punishment!
/02/2014: SO true: Mr Micawber in Dicken’s David Copperfield 'Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.'
08/02/2014: This is something you can do if you’ve got tank water and it is 40C+ outside. I installed these sprinklers on the roofline mainly for ember attack on fire days. They are doing double duty dragging the temperature in the house down this afternoon. You would not believe how warm the water is coming off the roof at the front of the house:
08/02/2014: Curiosity looking home: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/figures/PIA17936_fig2.jpg
08/02/2014: What about that: you probably thought I WAS a primitive type, and you were likely right, ‘Hairiness, blonde hair, and thick body hair are all thought to have been inherited from Neanderthals…Researchers believe that darker skin and hair colour came from the human gene lines, whereas genes yielding red or blonde hair and lighter skin complexion came from Neanderthals. Perhaps that explains like regions such as Scotland and Scandinavia where Neanderthals are believed to have survived the longest have the highest rates of red or blond hair and fair skin.’: http://www.dailytech.com/NeanderthalHuman+Breeding+Was+Hard+But+Yielded+Benefits/article34236.htm
08/02/2014: Brachychitons are Della’s NEW LOVE. I am eagerly seeking foreign specimens of these bulbous beauties as planting them would contradict my long-held policy of having nothing to do with the natives. Their (and Araucaria’s) relative absence from our Southern forests has long been an indication to me of the unwisdom of indigenous burning practices…There remain some (brachychitons) growing wild in the forests around Dargo…I once found a solitary Araucaria whilst deer hunting and wondered at its provenance…
08/02/2014:
Labor and the ABC are certainly running scared in
07/02/2014: I am rather proud of our new folding staircase for the camper:
I KNOW it needs a coat of paint!
07/02/2014: Since the rise of the micro parties 1300 votes which went missing in WA mean that at least 2-3 candidates failed to be elected: THE Barking Mad Party, THE Antigravity Party, the Flat Earth Party, the NQR Party, etc say that there will now be unnecessary delays in important aspects of their legislative programme. There will be a long delay in turning back time, repealing the laws of gravity, increasing the speed of light, introducing compulsory sex change…
07/02/2014: GET this twaddle: ‘Eating healthily costs up to 30% more than a diet high in carbohydrates, sugar and fat a new study shows…a food tax could be the answer. A low-income family would spend half its weekly wage to eat the healthy diet of lean meat, fruit and vegetables…’ (Herald Sun 05/02/2014) Low-income folk are apparently unable to GROW THEIR OWN fruit and vegetables, raise poultry or rabbits (unlike the rest of us)…naturally a TAX (THANKS A MILL, BIG BROTHER) is the solution. Just maybe they wouldn’t be so indecently fat, unfit and unemployed if they had a veggie garden, instead of being veggies themselves! WHO CARES if these folk DROP DEAD? They are certainly not worth a single cent of MY taxes!
07/02/2014:
SAY no more: Grace Collier: ‘the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has
confirmed that almost all of the plant’s more than 400 or so employees were
employed under a previous enterprise agreement that provided for redundancy of
four weeks’ pay for every year of service, up to a maximum of 104 weeks…Harvest
Freshcuts is a food processor. The plant at Bairnsdale is about the same
distance away from
06/02/2014: WOW: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/05/small-asteroid-slams-into-mars-impact-captured-by-orbiter/#more-102706
06/02/2014: 90% of road accidents involve non-smoking people who had zero alcohol reading and were not using a mobile phone. This problem cannot be allowed to continue. Causation and correlation both require that the Government legislate to make these undesirable activities illegal in order to reduce the road toll. A trial education programme will begin next week where people are required to consume a six pack before getting behind the wheel, are taught to do the drawback and blow smoke rings… Prizes will be given for speed texting while driving…
06/02/2014: Water on Ceres: which means there WILL be asteroid miners after all & the beer propelled rocket, a reality (The Makeshift Rocket
By Poul Anderson). Great news! http://thesop.org/story/20140202/deepspace-discovery-dwarf-planet-ceres.html
06/02/2014: Ain’t capitalism wonderful? When arthritis robs you of the ability to open champagne corks, help is at hand; you CAN still celebrate. Della used hers for the first time last night, awarded it a flying ‘Pass’ and celebrated accordingly. Cheers: https://www.house.com.au/product/d-line-champagne-cork-remover
05/02/2014: I guess ‘sharing art’ is code, the semantic equivalent of ‘have nothing intelligent to say’ - rather like all those other non-conformists struggling fiercely to be the same!
05/02/2014: This is absurd: Q&A Leftist host Tony Jones asks his panel (of four Leftists) last night to discuss whether the ABC really is biased (all this in front of a 100% Leftist audience!) The ABC should be abolished!
05/02/2014: I don’t think it is fine to shoot people for jumping the queue, or spitting on the footpath...Shooting is SO noisy (and frightens small children and horses. Garrotting is fine). The essence of ALL crime is folks who forget the ‘golden rule’ (had they ever heard of it? Viz: ‘Do unto others…’). ie Folks who think they are more important than other folks, so that it is only the latter who should stand in line! People need to learn to ‘keep their place’; if they do not, THEN ‘off with their heads’!
05/02/2014:
The Roman, Scipio Aemilianus. His name is hardly a by-word today – yet it
should be. During the course of the Third Punic War he was famous for
repeating, ‘Carthage Must Be Destroyed!’ which they did most efficaciously when
they won, executing all the menfolk, enslaving all the women and children,
razing the city to the ground, ploughing salt into the fields & etc. Not
much sign of
04/02/2014: During the heat yesterday we needed to purchase some hardware items from Bunnings and decided to quickly lunch at Midvalley. Also seeking solace from the heat was a vast pod of enormously fat people amazingly deftly skating around on disability/mobility ‘scooters’ who would clearly have been far better off outside getting some exercise, sweating some of those hard-won kilos off and eschewing the attractive calories offered by ice-creams and fries. But they were not: I remarked to the assistant at the ice creamery that they constituted a most unattractive advertising display for their shop. Japanese whalers should certainly abandon the Southern Ocean and target this wondrous potential source of blubber at Midvalley Shopping Centre. I doubt there would be any Greenpeace ships to hinder their activities there: one cannot even IMAGINE the staunchest champion of the NDIS (who ARE those people anyway?) standing in front of the harpoons. It is astonishing to me that gluttony and sloth are now disabilities worthy of reward and support.
04/02/2014: If one can grow SO enormous on the present ‘disability’ or ‘unemployment’ allowance, it beggars belief that it is socially (or personally) desirable that society spends MORE money on these problems. A reintroduction of rationing and ‘manpowering’ (ie compulsory designated) work such as worked so well to WIN WW2 (whilst keeping the population trim and fit) would seem a more appropriate strategy than a costly NDIS, much of which will be wasted on such indigent bloated loafers and their hangers on (carers, ‘facilitators’, experts and the like – not to mention lawyers)!
04/02/2014: Laziness IS a cause of indolence. Busy-ness, restricted calories and FORCING people to both contribute and take their own lives in order IS a solution. As people on welfare (through the votes that they should NOT have as they have not EARNED them) are forcing the rest of us to work and provide for them (even to the extent that the present generation are expected to work another TWO YEARS of their lives - which I think IS cruel and harsh!), it is reasonable that those who provide (instead of their being the SERVANTS of the indigent –as at present) become their masters, and REQUIRE them to contribute for their bread - just as the rest of us have to do. The people I saw at Midvalley had been getting rather too much bread: they were far too fat to be ABLE to work, ergo we are providing too much bread!
04/02/2014: Are not those who work 'forced to contribute' and doubly so: first they have to work for their own benefit, and then for the benefit of others and other causes many of which they would not CHOOSE to contribute to? They have to do this because those whom they prop up with their welfare have the majority of votes. I AM in favour of capital punishment, but someone would have to be VERY lazy before I would hang them. I think I could get them working sooner than that. There are many offences which I think 'hanging is too good for'. I would be MUCH crueller than that eg to those who attacked Nurse Cobbey or Camileri, Milat, etc.
04/02/2014:
HOW much do you believe people should GET for
NOTHING? I believe they should get exactly NOTHING for NOTHING. There is
already a free education system; besides work is free. There is any amount of
paid work going begging all over, much of it requiring no more skill than the
willingness to do it! You sure CAN force people to work and eat less. AND you
should! I hope that the Government we have elected in
04/02/2014: You don't have to thank us: you are ENTITLED! Interesting word that: once meaning -'aristocrat' - but these folks ARE 'the new aristocracy'; nothing to do but bleed the peasants dry, breed like ferrets, grow fat on the public purse, curse the Government for its stinginess...
04/02/2014: Over the years I have provided MILLIONS of meals (lamb, milk, chevon...) to society (and the makings hundreds of thousands of jumpers/blankets). For over 50 years I have worked TWO jobs (sometimes more) and have been a volunteer in MANY organisations (Country Fire Authority, Meals on Wheels, various clubs, societies, political parties...), built several houses with my own hands, thousands of kilometres of fences...& raised four fine children. Now I'm 65. I have contributed (literally) millions of dollars of tax and never asked for (or received) a single cent back from ANY Government! Of course the Government wants still more from me - I have been a fine milch cow for them! AND I am still working 50+ hours per week, but have time for some fun too! How much more do YOU expect me to do? Pushing those giant tubs of lard anywhere might be more than my poor old back would stand. I DO refuse to feed them any more - which WILL do them good! After they have fasted for six months or so, they might be able to run away - or do some useful work themselves!
04/02/2014: Could this possibly be TRUE? Apparently it IS! In some of KS Robinson’s novels (eg ‘2312’) the ‘terminator’ on Mercury moves slowly enough that a walker can keep ahead of it (unlike on Earth – where you need a VERY quick plane @ 1,000 kph). Though on the ‘day’ side Mercury is hot enough to melt lead or something, on the ‘night’ side it has a ‘habitable’ temperature? There is even some speculation (amongst astronomers, etc) that there MAY be dark craters on Mercury where sunlight never falls (as has been proven on our moon) and where ice may linger, indeed where it may be possible to ski! The universe certainly IS a fascinating place! http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/qa/index.php?faq=1&ca=34#qn408 & (GREAT website) http://intergalactictravelbureau.com/mercury/
04/02/2014: THIS is SUCH good news: ‘Older people do not decline mentally with age, it just takes them longer to recall facts because they have more information in their brains, scientists believe. Much like a computer struggles as the hard drive gets full up, so to do humans take longer to access information, it has been suggested.’ Sarah Knapton at telegraph.co.uk - but it is obviously complete twaddle!
03/02/2014:
SO sick of people reposting greenie-leftie scams. Della & I spent most of
two lifetimes trying to teach people the value of critical thinking, so it is
quite disappointing to see how our efforts failed. You would hope that when
people see a sensational claim that they would make SOME effort to Google up
the various points of view on the issue – if only to avoid the embarrassment of
others seeing how THEY have been gulled! A case in point: the proposed
‘dumping’ of 3-5 million tonnes of ‘spoil’ on the
03/02/2014: Whether to selectively kill man-eating great white sharks? These are nasty beasties at the best of times – just ask the seals and penguins, people. Their behaviour has been made so much worse by tourist operators training them to associate people with food by encouraging them to come take lamb legs & etc from sight-seers' hands just so they get an interesting photo-shoot. This is called ‘eco tourism’! Then there are the innumerable surfers DISGUISING themselves as seals (their ‘natural’ prey) in black wet-suits to also add encouragement to the sharks’ excessively unpleasant predilection for vicious carnivorous pranks! No-one seems to mind when hunters risk their lives to cull the odd man-eating tiger, lion, polar bear, crocodile…or when council officers put down a brutal dog which has just squaffled some innocent babe! Most folks think that child molesters should entertain us at the end of a rope! What is it about the odd very nasty great white shark that belies the same treatment for them? It is the SAME thing folks!
03/02/2014:
Quote of the day: ‘The first definition of “indigenous” offered by the
02/02/2014: Sharks are fish. I had a can of tuna for lunch. Ergo, I am a monster! I would MUCH rather eat a fish than have it eat me. While I am on this non-PC topic, I also doubt dolphins and whales are much smarter than sheep or cows. Indeed, neither of the above is known for mass suicide such as cetaceans seem to enjoy. They are (in the wild) also generally harder to catch than ‘Flipper’. If we don’t kill and eat the latter, they will breed up until there ARE no fish in the sea. All this crazy neo-Buddhist stuff: Save the everything. What do you think you were raised on, people: meat pies and Birds Eyes. What do you imagine was in the fish fingers? Get over it people, WE are the mega-predator. Quit the guilt and enjoy. Fillet of Moby Dick tonight, please Della! http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2014/01/sharks-taste-greenies/
02/02/2014: SO true (NB for ‘Social Security’ read ‘Welfare’): ‘Count me in with those who believe Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. After all, many Ponzis start with a surplus and garner interest, but over time the payouts exceed incoming revenues. All Ponzis are based on paying dividends to "investors" out of active money incoming from new "investors". But even Ponzis don't pay out additional money to people who petition for someone else's funds. If they did, I presume they would lower one person's payout to cover the person making the petition. I'm not sure how long Social Security can last. A friend of mine who is dyed-in-the-wool liberal/progressive believes the upper range limit for SocSec payments should be eliminated and it should be handled the same way as an income tax. That is probably the first step that will be taken. Soak the Rich. This will extend the scheme for a few more years. Then they will undoubtedly implement means-testing, which will extend it a bit longer. At some point, all the financial engineering will fail. Until then, keep kicking the can down the road.’ http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/23744-The-Government-Comes-Up-With-The-Money.html
02/02/2014: GREENPEACE is utterly EVIL. It was not always so, but after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the 80’s it was taken over by ultra left wing extremists who will say and do anything to further their cause. Patrick Moore, the founder of Greenpeace, should know. Greenpeace have been attacking him for years and have recently even been attempting to airbrush him from their history. He has written a book about it (http://www.beattystreetpublishing.com/confessions/Dropout ) and spoken about it many times, eg here: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB120882720657033391 and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCf8AXJHu-U I think chief amongst their socially destructive campaigns have been: those against chlorine, phthalates, GM – and particularly ‘golden rice’ – how can folk who are THE CAUSE of millions of children dying or being BLINDED be anything but EVIL?
01/02/2014: Of course, this (excessive union interference) is why Holden & Ford had to close. SPC may be next: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/if_the_union_wants_spc_saved_here_are_some_savings/
01/02/2014: THIS should teach Sarah Hanson-Young a lesson she’ll NEVER forget. Good luck with Mustapha, Sarah: http://pickeringpost.com/story/dear-ms-sarah-hanson-young-/2682
01/02/2014: Canadian Experts: Pedophilia Is A Sexual Orientation. Of course it is. And theft is a Material Orientation: http://weaselzippers.us/?p=165472
31/01/2014:
‘Before Jayden there had been only one death in 30 years. Yet in 2012 about 900
cases were diagnosed in hospitals in
31/01/2014: An important post by Prof Judith Curry on our emeritus PM’s recent speech: http://judithcurry.com/2013/11/07/john-howard-one-religion-is-enough/#more-13667
31/01/2014:
Deeply worrying: THIS, from retired Labor Minister Barry Cohen, ‘Soon after I
told a Labor legend: “Anti-Semitism is now rampant in the Labor Party.” I
expected a vigorous denial. His response confirmed my worst fear: “I know,” he
said.’ Shamefully, it is EVEN MORE apparent in the Greens Party, most of whom
advocate sanctions against
29/01/2014: You folks who have smartphones might like to TRY this: Turn Your Smartphone Into a Digital Microscope! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpMTkr_aiYU
29/01/2014: ‘So why did Labor do it (ABOLISH the ABCC)? How close are its senior figures to union bosses? How beholden is Labor, now led by former AWU boss Bill Shorten, to big unions in general, and the rich CFMEU in particular? Did Prime Minister Julia Gillard disclose to her party room that the national president of the CFMEU was her former boyfriend?’ It will be very hard for Labor to escape the perception that they are ALL CROOKS! http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/so_why_did_labor_scrap_the_watchdog_that_could_have_stopped_this_cfmeu_corr/
29/01/2014:
‘THE Indonesian navy has added three small warships to its southern patrols, with
29/01/2014: This has been a particularly clever strategy on Abbott's part. Many people commented on our navy apologising for 'inadvertently' stumbled into Indo territory (on the basis that this was unlikely = correct). The response it has provoked from the Indos is their need to POLICE their borders. WELL DONE TONY: http://pickeringpost.com/story/war-games-abbott-1-indos-0-/2675
29/01/2014: Ragnarok IS COMING! We survived the Mayan apocalypse LAST year, but maybe we Norse types ought fear the ‘twilight of the Gods’ MORE? Make a special place in your calendar for 22 Feb THIS year, as it may be the LAST: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6k
28/01/2014: G’bye Pete. We’ll miss ya now you’re gone: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/arts/music/pete-seeger-songwriter-and-champion-of-folk-music-dies-at-94.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1
28/01/2014: Bruce Wilson’s last chance to stop the cops getting their hands on the Slater & Gordon material is less than a month away. He will certainly lose. This material contains (among other incriminating documents) Ms Gillard’s work diary from her time at S&G. This WILL show that her witnessing of the Blewitt Power of Attorney was false and illegal. Once the police have this material they WILL interview Ms Gillard and Mr Wilson. Shortly after that charges WILL be laid. During the next three years the Abbott Government will expose the vast web of union corruption which exists in this country (as the ICAC is already doing in NSW & even the ABC, to my astonishment, LAST night). Many senior Labor figures will be gaoled &/or be irrevocably ruined. Interesting times…
28/01/2014:
‘WE SHALL OVERCOME’. Pete Seeger, my all-time favourite, dead at 94. I have
been a fan for over 50 years. Pete was already famous when Woody Guthrie (my
SECOND favourite) went up to
28/01/2014: Interesting take on the myth that conservatives fear change: ‘My reading of the news is that it is (‘progressives’) who fear things. They fear climate change, even though there doesn't seem to be much, and much of it might be beneficial. They fear GM foods, even though those have #deaths=0 and organic foods have #deaths=millions. Even recently, a lot. They fear even reporting human biological diversity and racial differences. They fear home schooling. They fear concealed carry and those icky people that even want to own guns. They fear free markets’ http://assistantvillageidiot.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/fraidy-cats.html
27/01/2014:
Say’s Law: ‘The European economies, and
27/01/2014: It is almost THIS difficult already in Oz to deal with things which want to eat your lambs. Traps? Snares? Both banned. $60,000 fine PLUS other penalties (eg loss of shooter’s licence, placed on register etc, etc) Try putting out poison baits. Licences, course/s, permits, paperwork…Shooting? Perhaps your farm NOW resides in a ‘Environmental Living Zone’, then it’s NO GO!…Of course this is only when it is just FOXES. If it is someone else’s dog, WELL! What if it is, Hush! Wait for it! A wedged-tailed eagle? – which it commonly is. (Curiously the ‘Farm Chemical User’s’ course I was COMPELLED to attend [TWICE now!] to get my ‘permit’- I still have to apply to buy FOX baits and then fill in lots of paperwork etc if I want to use them) informed me that the lethal dose (of 10:80) for eagles is EIGHT TIMES that for foxes – a useful piece of info! ‘Shoot, Shovel and Shut Up’ is MUCH quicker and more effective: http://neveryetmelted.com/2014/01/23/just-a-few-years-down-the-road/
27/01/2014: Some wonderful hiking ‘goodies’ here. I liked the ‘Grip Socks, the mylar survival poncho and the new Vasque shoes, for example: http://gossamergear.com/wp/buzz-blog/outdoor-retailer-delivers-again-loads-of-new-updated-lighter-better-and-outrageous-gear-and-some-items-you-didnt-know-you-needed-or-not
26/01/2014: It IS sad to think there may still be children today who are unfamiliar with Raymond Briggs’ wonderful ‘Fungus the Bogeyman Plop-up Book’: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fungus-Bogeyman-Plop-up-Raymond-Briggs/sim/024110811X/2
26/01/2014: NEVER have to sharpen your knife again: GREAT for hunting; these made useful gifts for myself and the two ‘boys’ @ US$34.95 on Amazon (105 grams): http://www.outdooredge.com/Razor-Blaze-p/razor-blaze.htm These little guys, the Gerber ‘E.A.B. Lite’ utilising a standard ‘Stanley’ knife blade (@67 grams) are very handy for everyday use: http://www.amazon.com/Gerber-31-000345-E-A-B-Pocket-Knife/dp/B002RILCLY
26/01/2014:
WHOSE national sovereignty IS MORE important? When an Australian ‘illegally’
visits the conquered
26/01/2014:
Answer to a comment: You are refusing to engage with Indonesian 'history'. MOST
of its current 'empire' is conquered territory (and people) over which it had
NO lawful claim for hegemony (and which has been bitterly and cruelly disputed
by the conquered peoples (occasioning much pain and bloodshed). We did nothing
when they took over Sumatra (Aceh), the Celebes (
25/01/2014: At Davos Tony Abbott has just delivered one of the greatest speeches of modern times. It is not very long. You should read every word of it. Some snippets:
‘It’s
worth noting – if only to remind ourselves of the good that can be done – that
in the past few decades, more has been achieved to reduce poverty than in any
other period in history… Mostly, though, it’s been driven by the intellectual
and philosophical conviction that freer trade and smaller government will
strengthen prosperity; the instinct that empowered citizens can do more for
themselves than government will ever do for them…You can’t spend what you
haven’t got. No country has ever taxed or subsidised its way to prosperity. You
don’t address debt and deficit with yet more debt and deficit. And profit is
not a dirty word because success in business is something to be proud of…A
certain level of government spending is necessary and good. In
http://www.pm.gov.au/media/2014-01-23/address-world-economic-forum-davos-switzerland-0
25/01/2014: AT LAST: some GOOD news: http://www.salon.com/2014/01/19/top_10_reasons_sex_is_good_for_you/
25/01/2014: Bill & Melinda Gates have done more to abolish poverty than any two people in all of history. Have a read of their latest hugely optimistic letter (they foresee poverty disappearing in their lifetimes – by 2035). It HAS drastically declined already in the last 25 years thanks to CAPITALISM! BIG HURRAH! Great news: http://annualletter.gatesfoundation.org/?cid=bg_pt_ll0_012122/#section=home
24/01/2014: Already a lightweight hiker, I have nonetheless managed to shave off nearly 2kg from my pack weight in prep for our next foray into the Fiordland wilderness. These were amongst the savings: http://www.zpacks.com/ cuben raincoat (save 334 grams), https://goosefeetgear.com/ waterproof over booties (save 365 grams), http://www.montbell.com/ Ex Light Down Jacket (save 200 grams), new pot & stove combo http://www.traildesigns.com/stoves/toaks-1100ml-ti-pot-frying-pan-fissure-ti-tri-bundle (save 165 grams), new waterproof camera Sony Cyber Shot DSC-TX200V ( Save 170 grams), lightweight dry clothes eg Tachyon wind jacket (@ 1.6oz & Dynamo pants @2.6oz by Montbell (save 498 grams)…compared to our South Coast walk in Tasmania in 2011 my pack weight is down OVER 4.5 kg. I should be carrying UNDER 10kg at the beginning of our Fiordland walk (including 10 days’ food (& rum!)
24/01/2014: I like it that the Government is set to go for full recovery of the cost of rescuing the warmist clowns who utterly stupidly got themselves stuck @ Commonwealth Bay at Xmas & who panicked & screamed for help. Their ship arrived in port weeks before they did! 53 of them into $2.5 mil works out @ $47,169.81ea. Serves the bastards right! They won’t be partying on the ice any more!
'About
2.30pm the weather deteriorated. At the same time Captain Kiselev saw slabs of
sea ice moving into the open water channel from which the ship had entered the
area. He called for everyone to return.
A passenger standing near Professor Turney overheard the voyage leader, Greg
Mortimer, telling him over the radio to bring passengers back to the ship so it
can leave.
But minutes later, Professor Turney drove six more passengers into the field.'
…the insurers will likely say the incident was caused by negligence on the part
of Dr. Chris Turney, and toss the claim back in their laps.
24/01/2014: Why can’t the pols figure that only ‘light’ drinks should be sold at these ‘entertainment’ venues? I have drunk only light beer for over 40 years – and it has done me no harm that I can discern. Anyway, I have very rarely ‘king-hit’ anyone in that time or kicked them when they were down – much as I might have wanted to!
23/01/2014: The Australian Navy has done it again: http://larrybrownsports.com/tennis/rafael-nadal-blisters-hand/217432
23/01/2014: Tim Blair: ‘As Wade Laube notes, the ABC considers video of asylum seeker burns to be proof of how the burns occurred. But Prime Minister Tony Abbott requires a higher evidentiary standard: Asked if the aired footage constituted as evidence, Mr Abbott said: “Who do you believe? “Do you believe Australian naval personnel or do you believe people who were attempting to break Australian law? I believe Australian naval personnel.” So do most sane people. However, given that so many completely credible and utterly trustworthy individuals are convinced that Australian naval personnel have variously shot at, burned and assaulted asylum seekers, it’s worth asking the question …’
23/01/2014: No finer epitaph could I have than‘, He ate what was set before him,’ Robert Heinlein, ‘Starman Jones’, p. 234. (GREAT title!) The prevailing sense of ‘entitlement’ is SO wrong. We have only THIS life, not some yearned for fairy-tale. Grab life with both hands. Carpe that old Diem. ie ‘Seize the day’. Enjoy!
23/01/2014: ‘Despite their grimly statist ways, the utopians continue to pass themselves off as well-meaning hipsters, anti-establishment rebels and earthy pro-underdog types, united by a devotion to freedom and tolerance. This has to be the most successful PR exercise in history – no less astonishing than if Hitler had convinced the world he was an avid Judeophile. The people responsible for hate crimes, speech codes, the smoking ban, debilitating taxes, and a soul-sucking state bureaucracy would have us believe that they are chilled-out hipcats, who totally dig your scene. If you think what they think, do what they say, and accept the terms of their ‘generosity’, it might be possible to enjoy their simulacrum of freedom as though it’s the real thing. But wander too far from the coop and soon you’ll soon collide with the chicken wire.’ (Maggie’s Farm)
23/01/2014: A VERY worthwhile read if you are interested in how things come about, eg ‘GISS and UAH differ by 0.36°C, which is enormous in nine years. Compare it to the 0.6°C increase over 140 years, a change the 2001 IPCC claimed was dramatic and unnatural.’ Mostly the error climatologists seem to have made is attributing to temperature what should have been attributed to precipitation. I had noticed that myself in relation to glaciers (which grow when it rains and shrink when it is dry - irrespective of temperature change). The validity of the chronological CO2 record is PARTICULARLY important: ‘The amount of CO2 in the ice crystals varies with the temperature of the water droplet and raindrop, just as seawater CO2 capacity varies. This means glacier meltwater has a higher concentration of CO2 and as it trickles down through the ice layers modifies the ice bubbles as Jaworowski explained in his presentation to the US Senate Committee (March 2004). This is because the ice cores do not fulfil the essential closed system criteria. “One of them is a lack of liquid water in ice, which could dramatically change the chemical composition the air bubbles trapped between the ice crystals. This criterion, is not met, as even the coldest Antarctic ice (down to -73°C) contains liquid water[2]. More than 20 physico-chemical processes, mostly related to the presence of liquid water, contribute to the alteration of the original chemical composition of the air inclusions in polar ice”’ : http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/27/many-climate-reconstructions-incorrectly-attributed-to-temperature-change/#more-99965
22/01/2014:
My new raincoat. 154 grams (in my size) in waterproof, 40,000ml breathable
cuben fibre from http://www.zpacks.com/ It
IS spectacular. Rolls up to the size of a pack of cigs. It comes in this attractive
white colour only. Can hardly wait for some rain so I can try it out! It has
Spot’s seal of approval , as you can see. 
22/01/2014: The House by the Side of the Road: Sam Walter Foss
There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars, that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
Let me live in a house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner's seat,
Or hurl the cynic's ban
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
I see from my house by the side of the road,
By the side of the highway of life,
The men who press with the ardor of hope,
The men who are faint with the strife.
But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears,
Both parts of an infinite plan
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead
And mountains of wearisome height;
That the road passes on through the long afternoon
And stretches away to the night.
But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice,
And weep with the strangers that moan,
Nor live in my house by the side of the road
Like a man who dwells alone.
Let me live in my house by the side of the road
It's here the race of men go by.
They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,
Wise, foolish so am I;
Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat,
Or hurl the cynic's ban?
Let me live in my house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
22/01/2014: NO boat arrivals for a month. This compares VERY favourably with 3,000 arrivals per month (under the previous ‘Government’), and a drowning death either every day or every other day! To recap, 3,000 fewer people arrived and 30 fewer died. That’s what I call a win/win!
21/01/2014: SO many things I do/did not know (eg ergot causes St Vitus Dance – can this be why during the Middle Ages there was a weird outbreak of mass hysteria where folks danced themselves to death (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Plague_of_1518 This woman, Frau Troffea, deserves to go DOWN in history!) ? That is something which would NEVER catch on with me, as I consider ‘dance’ to be just about the weirdest thing people do, pretty much on a par with wishing people ‘a nice day’, and car washing – something I have never fallen for either!) BUT ‘white food’ IS an interesting notion which I had never thought much about (nor its racist connotations). I can remember my dad always picked minute invisible somethings out of his bread before he ate it which I had always assumed was just because of a background of Depression era poverty food (‘Weavils in the Flour’) & etc – but maybe not. He may have been a ‘white’ supremacist after all: he DID always use white toothpaste, add white sugar to his tea, eat white bread, use white mayonnaise, had a preference for vanilla ice cream, wrote on white sheets of paper…the list is well-nigh endless…Two of my favourite quotes; Milton Berle used to joke, “Anytime somebody orders a corned beef sandwich on white bread with mayonnaise, somewhere in the world, a Jew dies.” & ‘It was widely believed that the safest meal to eat in a strange diner was a grilled-cheese sandwich.’
White food: http://takimag.com/article/white_food_steve_sailer/print#axzz2qklj8FAq
21/01/2014: I was trying to think this morning of books which are REALLY good for a laugh. I got to three which are really rib-tickling before my mind moved on to something else: 'The Exploits of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin' by Idries Shah, 'The Book of Heroic Failures' by Stephen Pile, 'Puckoon' by Spike Milligan...PLEASE add to the list!
21/01/2014: If you wonder WHY I return again & again to Fiordland (& the Dusky Track) maybe this excerpt from ‘Shadowland’ will whet your appetite. (Della’s favourite part, the kakapo @ 37secs in). You MAY have to BUY the complete vid as no-one seems to have uploaded it, but it WILL be worth it. Even more worthwhile is to tramp the Fiordland wilderness. If you feel you are not as fit as we geriatrics, treat yourself to a heli or plane tour out of Te Anau. Ah, back again in Feb/Mar 2014: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF4ugISWMT8
20/01/2014: It’s TRUE: ‘Antarctica Has Sea Ice Rabbit Ears, a V for Victory or Maybe It’s a Peace Sign?…’ (Thanks to Anthony Watts for noticing this) http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/S_bm_extent_hires.png
20/01/2014: Dogs just can’t be made to speak clearly (and they are not alone there, as my advancing geriatric deafness attests!) After our two Westies died our remaining ancient Jack Russell, Tiny showed every evidence of wanting to learn to talk. I spent many hours training her until (I thought) she could quite clearly say, ‘Food’! However, immediately we bought her a new puppy (Spot) she ceased all attempts at oral communication. This was clearly because she had been trying to say, ‘Puppy’ when I just thought she said, ‘food’. It is surprising how few animals have learned how to speak English (or any other language for that matter). What s even more surprising is how many fewer humans have learned to speak ‘Animal’ considering that we consider ourselves to be the smartest animal! This man is perhaps the only exception: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvccpd_my-life-as-a-turkey-hd_shortfilms
20/01/2014: Breathtaking NZ: http://vimeo.com/83907617
20/01/2014: Quote of the day: Henry Hazlitt’s ‘Marxism in One Minute’: ‘The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are. Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others. [MP: Or according to our Marxist-in-Chief: "If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."] Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects — his laziness, incompetence, improvidence or stupidity. Never believe in the honesty or disinterestedness of anyone who disagrees with you. This basic hatred is the heart of Marxism. This is its animating force. You can throw away the dialectical materialism, the Hegelian framework, the technical jargon, the “scientific” analysis, and millions of pretentious words, and you still have the core: the implacable hatred and envy that are the raison d’etre for all the rest.’
19/01/2014: Today my mother Marie would have been 95 if her life had not been cut short ten years ago by mesothelioma. Especially on her birthday I am aware of many conversations I failed to have with her, and never will. Her only contact with asbestos (as far as anyone could tell) was washing my asbestos covered clothes after I came home from work at Sulphide Corporation at Cockle Creek Newcastle (Rio) in the 1960’s where I was daily (literally) up to my armpits in the stuff and (most days) breathing it in in huge lungfulls. I understood then and understand today that such unsafe working conditions which saw weekly deaths in refineries and mines in the Hunter where I worked for a number of years were a consequence of rebuilding the country after the huge cost of WW2, so that we were in a situation not unlike those who had fought to save the country during that conflict, ie necessity. Thankfully we have been able to afford safer working conditions for workers & management since then, but everything we ‘enjoy’ has to be affordable. (My great uncle Albert Sanlaville, a manager at a coal mine at Kurri Kurri was killed in an ‘accident’ there in 1929). I trust I have not inherited the acute susceptibility to asbestosis my mother had - her chance of contracting the disease which killed her were 4 in one million IF she had acute exposure (she did not).
19/01/2014: THIS would be a pretty neat gadget if he can make it work: there may be some difficulty extracting sufficient dissolved oxygen from the available water quickly enough – large animals like humans DO require quite a bit, but you must have all seen those vids of underwater rabbits & etc, so the concept might work: http://inhabitat.com/triton-scuba-mask-transforms-divers-into-human-fish/
19/01/2014: ONE of the reasons we have unemployment is that it is just too hard to give ‘dubious’ or inexperienced workers a start due to minimum wage awards, plus the plethora of additional charges on employment (payroll taxes, sick leave, LSL, holiday pay, superannuation, maternity & paternity leave, workers’ compensation, public liability insurance & so on ad nauseum), and also the serous risks of litigation involved in various labour ‘protection’ rackets such as ‘unfair dismissal’, workplace ‘bullying’, the various forms of ‘harassment’ & etc. It must be a terrible problem if you are someone keen to get a job or make a new start but who has ‘made a mistake’ at some time in the past eg been fired for some reason, acquired a police record & etc. Who in his/her right mind IS going to give you ‘a go’? A Govt scheme to indemnify employers who are willing to give people a chance has long been urgently needed – which SOUNDS like bad grammar, I know, but it is merely the reality of the problem. The writer of this article argues (very lucidly) that minimum wage awards seriously disadvantage the very people they are intended to protect (like almost all socialist policies really!): http://mises.org/daily/6630/The-Minimum-Wage-Forces-LowSkill-Workers-to-Compete-with-HigherSkill-Workers
19/01/2014: Can smokers, drinkers and motorists really afford to keep supporting all the wowsers and do-gooders of the world? These obsessive health nuts are clearly (attempting to) outlive these honest taxpaying party-goers who provide such a bonanza to them through their onerous excise duties which often, counting that the ‘goods’ involved are purchased with after tax money AND attract GST as well, pay a marginal tax rate on their ‘recreational’ purchases of over 90% - far more than the rich EVER paid in income taxes in the ‘good old days’ of Bob Menzies & etc – but these taxpayers are not the rich. Too often they are the poorest in our society – made even moreso by having to shell out their 90% to the wowsers who condemn them and who seek to outlive them as well, but outlive them at those selfsame taxpayer’s expense: a ruse which only works because they (the wowsers) in fact do not outlive the indulgent – and thank goodness for that!
18/01/2014: SOME improvement! I can see NOW how Volvo have an aim of making cars which NO-ONE dies in by 2020: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g
18/01/2014: Well SAID, Viv: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/26/pioneers-builders-and-termites/#more-99941
18/01/2014: To some extent, THIS has happened here too: Everyone Is a Criminal. Fortunately Tony has recently announced he is abolishing 8,000 laws in a single day (sic!). This IS a step in the right direction: http://www.thenation.com/article/177519/everyone-criminal-over-policing-america#
18/01/2014: ‘Young people once looked forward to the day they would escape the family home and forge their own path through life. Holding down a job, managing their finances and taking responsibility for their actions were what defined them as adults. And a society of such people, working together, was the cornerstone of Western civilisation. But for the past few decades, the Left has sold us a different dream. They have promised to look after the boring admin of life, so we might set off on its great adventure, like Georgian gentlemen embarking on Grand Tours. Even if this vision had not soured to a living nightmare, it would have still been profoundly dehumanising. Coping with the vagaries of life is life. It’s how we express our individuality and become more mature, rounded human beings. By seeking to liberate us from life’s challenges, the Left has turned us into a nation of children, trapped in a shabby, impoverished society, the primary function of which is to subsidise its least productive members.’ (Maggie’s Farm)
17/01/2014: I can think of MANY people for whom THIS would be a MOST appropriate present: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e5a7/#tabs
17/01/2014: This ad targeted ME – I think I probably could use a touch-up but would most likely need the real thing improved, not just the pics: http://studio.portraitprofessional.com/?gclid=CP6H8P3hgbwCFcUbpAodBVEARQ
17/01/2014: Quote of the day, ‘an attractive misandrist is an oxymoron’, Larry Pickering. I must admit I too am appalled, astonished and disgusted that ‘Destroy the Joint’s campaign includes sending Scott Morrison used condoms every month! http://pickeringpost.com/story/real-blokes-like-real-sheilas/2617
17/01/2014: Thanks Grace; I confess I did not know UNIONS pay NO TAX. I knew churches and charities were exempt - & I never agreed with that either. Frankly, I can’t see why ANYONE should pay no tax. Either we’re all in this mess together, or it is a question of some of us providing a hand-out to the others – a state of affairs about which I’m sure I’m not the only one who is ready to cry, ‘ENOUGH!’ http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/01/grace-collier-with-startling-common-sense.html
16/01/2014: The UN IS a disaster: http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/are-we-still.html#comments
16/01/2014: TOO good to be true, ‘the #spirtofmawson people are still at Casey Station, waiting for their ride home, while the Akademic Shokalskiy has made it to port in New Zealand’ Money WELL SPENT: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/01/13/akademic-shokalskiy-makes-it-back-to-port-spirtofmawson-fools-still-stuck-in-antartica/
16/01/2014: Public Enemies: the Green Police, the Warm Police, the Exercise Police, the Smoking Police, the Food Police… http://www.luckyculture.com.au/what-the-food-police-dont-tell-you-about-trans-fats/
15/01/2014: ‘But because people in the West are not threatened by concentration camps and are free to say and write what they want, the more the fight for human rights gains in popularity, the more it loses any concrete content, becoming a kind of universal stance of everyone toward everything, a kind of energy that turns all human desires into rights.’ – Milan Kundera, and so ‘Human desires are frequently cited, accurately or not, as the basis for human rights. Want publicly funded birth control? Then argue that it’s a human right. The same goes for SSM or assisted suicide. If you love someone, then it’s your human right to marry them; if you no longer want to live, then it’s your right to die. If you don’t want a child, then abort it. But if that same baby dies in a car accident on the way to the abortion clinic, the death becomes homicide. By making human desires indistinguishable from human rights, the Left fundamentally recreates the historic Western category of the human.’ Harrison Dietzman: http://ricochet.com/main-feed/The-Left-s-Reordering-of-Human-Desire
15/01/2014: How the ‘Great Deceit’ was created: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/11/13/why-and-how-the-ipcc-demonized-co2-with-manufactured-information/#more-97390
15/01/2014: Can YOU think of a better example of power for power’s sake and nanny state nonsense gone utterly barmy than the ban on incandescent light globes?
14/01/2014: Way to GO: HUGE CUTS: In an effort to slash red and green tape, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced around 8,000 federal laws will be abolished in one day.
14/01/2014: Freedom? How can THIS be happening in our country? http://pickeringpost.com/story/a-pizza-with-the-lot/2539
14/01/2014: Duh! ‘More dramatic isotopic warming (and cooling) trends occurred in the mid-nineteenth and eighteenth centuries, suggesting that at present, the effect of anthropogenic climate drivers at this location has not exceeded the natural range of climate variability in the context of the past ~300 years.’ http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/05/new-ice-core-record-shows-climate-variability-in-west-antarctica/#more-98594
14/01/2014: A very great leader, Ariel Sharon dies and is decently buried within 48 hours with little said by international leaders or the world’s press, yet they dragged poor Nelson around for WEEKS like some ragged toy, making out that HE was somehow ‘The Second Coming’!
13/01/2014: ‘If all else fails, lower your standards’
13/01/2014:
Not JUST
13/01/2014: Even if you die (of an excess of salt?) at age 87(!) does that REALLY entitle your spouse to a WAR widow’s pension just shy of 70 years AFTER your service ended? Though I appreciate Clement Hutton’s service to our country, the sense of ENTITLEMENT present in Australian society is frightening, (as is the ENORMOUS cost of the blood-sucking lawyers ‘fearlessly’ pursuing such claims): http://catallaxyfiles.com/2014/01/02/87-year-old-man-dies-time-for-compo/
12/01/2014: If you’ve got an hour to listen (and you really SHOULD have) here is how Studs Terkel introduced Bob Dylan to the world way back in 1963 BEFORE times began changing… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4nA3QwGPBg
12/01/2014: Anthony Esolen, reflecting on John Ford’s great movie, ‘How Green was My Valley’: ‘I do not own a coal mine. I am a professor of literature at an American college. We professors, like the mine owners, do not do hard manual labour for a living. Unlike those mine owners, if I may speak generally, we spend none of our time around such men. We do not break bread with them, we do not live near them, we do not worship at the same church, our children do not see one another on the streets. We are almost entirely insulated from the exigencies of bodily life. We do not grow our own fruit and vegetables, we do not build our own homes, we do not raise our own livestock, we do not dig our own wells, we do not repair our own vehicles, we do not clear our own fields, we do not pave our own driveways and roads, we do not lay the bricks for our own schools, we do not fight our own fights.’ Far TOO many like him – and yet unlike, for most show no remorse and are ever assured of their superiority! http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2014/01/theres-equality-theres-equality/
12/01/2014: Well, far from being abandoned with NO telecommunications at all (as a result of the NBN) I noticed a couple of days ago that one of those crown-topped NBN wireless towers had suddenly appeared amid the trees at the top of the hill on our next door neighbours’ property not half a click away! Evidently we can now receive the internet @25 megs and cheaper than from our current provider; all this far sooner than most folks in towns/cities even!
11/01/2014: YES: http://blogs.news.com.au/images/uploads/allus.png
11/01/2014: An oz of Gallium; the perfect gift? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BSRAH5M//ref=cm_sw_su_dp?tag=duiwath-20
11/01/2014: WANKERS of the Year Award: OUR ‘Education Department (which) manages “a high-quality, coherent, birth-through-adulthood learning and development system” that costs $11.1 billion a year to run…it exists “to support Victorians to build prosperous, socially engaged, happy and healthy lives” Not SO long ago we could all agree on what we wanted schools to teach our children, (Literacy, Numeracy, Citizenship for a start!) Now that they no longer do so, we have this… http://www.luckyculture.com.au/a-whole-of-government-guide-to-tortured-syntax/
10/01/2014:
Peak oil is over? Tell that to the
10/01/2014: STRANGE things you can’t bring onto planes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luNfghUnvFg
10/01/2014: Astonishing that anyone could WANT to do this, let alone succeed: http://www.gizmag.com/south-pole-fat-trike/30245/
09/01/2014:
Ah, the rush to publish…Della has beaten me hands down on this one – I blame a
nasty episode of Meniere’s. Foxbaits laid on our intended route, we ventured
instead into the
09/01/2014: This headline indicates the level of statism in the ‘land of the free’. I misdoubt the situation is any better here. With @ 1/15th of their population I imagine we have @ 3,000 new laws each year. The sooner we get rid of half our Governments and half our laws, the better. Then we can start on ridding ourselves of the OTHER half… http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/12/31/40000-new-laws-take-effect-in-2014/
09/01/2014:
Excuse me folks but WHALES are a RENEWABLE RESOURCE which once supplied all of
the world’s lighting and lubrication – as well as a considerable amount of food
(not to mention corset building material, scrimshaw, ambergris & etc,
etc)…It is also more than passing strange that the same folk who think whale
killing is evil, think that baby killing is good! And good enough to be paid a
$5,000 baby bonus for! Yes, really! Incidentally I was a foundation member of
Project Jonah which was successful in having
A month ago you could have bought Boart Longyear (BLY) for $0.265. This morning it hit $0.50, and has risen $0.10 in the last three days! I have commented on this stock before. Congrats if you made an easy $100K or so since Friday! Mining IS coming back!
08/01/2014: A transparent canoe would be cool for a while but unfortunately I would soon scratch it up: http://www.dudeiwantthat.com/outdoors/watersports/see-through-bottom-canoe.asp
08/01/2014: The food CRISIS: the world already produces THREE TIMES the food needed by the world’s population: ‘Currently food production is believed sufficient to feed 25 billion people and growing. The issue is that in the developing world some 60 percent of production never makes it to the table.’ Over-population, resource depletion, pollution, extinctions, global warming…these are ALL febrile INVENTIONS of the Left whose aim is ever world domination and the fattening of the commissars: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/01/05/overpopulation-the-fallacy-behind-the-fallacy-of-global-warming/#more-100583
08/01/2014:
Vikings in
07/01/2014: I’m sure this is also true in Vic! What a MAD (Green) world we live in: http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/01/all-frogs-and-tadpoles-are-protected-in-nsw-under-the-national-parks-and-wildlife-act-and-it-is-agai.html
07/01/2014: We are rather cosseted by our media here in Oz in that they will not report even the worst excesses of their Leftie mates, even Kim Jong Un, but having your uncle (and five of his mates) torn to pieces and eaten by savage dogs is surely a little beyond the Pale (as is having your girlfriend machine-gunned for that matter!): http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/01/horror-kim-jong-un-had-his-uncle-eaten-alive-by-120-revenous-dogs/
07/01/2014: I do LIKE Larry Pickering. Here he revisits one of the (other) great scams of our time, (the anti-smoking pogrom) and establishes brilliantly the indisputable FACT that tobacco smoking is GOOD for you, REDUCES your chance of cancer and heart disease and INCREASES your longevity. WELL DONE, Larry: http://pickeringpost.com/story/tobacco-fibs/2553
06/01/2014: Quote of the day: ‘The global warming scam is unravelling quicker than Julia’s knitting’ Larry Pickering: http://pickeringpost.com/story/the-scare-scam-is-well-and-truly-sunk/2572
06/01/2014: Ain't it the truth? http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/12/chart-of-the-greatest-and-most-remarkable-achievement-in-human-history-and-one-you-probably-never-heard-about/
06/01/2014:
Exped ultralight pillow (@45 grams http://www.moontrail.com/exped-airpillow-ul-m.php).
Received one of these for Xmas and tried it out last night. VERY comfortable. I
have been seeking a new hiking pillow since Graham Medical stopped making their
dual chamber ‘Flexair’ pillow. This could well be IT. Unlike Bonnie Prince
Charlie who famously used a rock for a pillow (and was taunted as a sissy for needing
one - in the snow during the raising of the
06/01/2014: Went to Midvalley Cinema to watch ‘The Hunger Games – Catching Fire’. I said to Della at the start ‘Think they have it on Widescreen’, but she was non-committal, so watched the whole movie with everyone pretending to be Gimli the Dwarf. Spoke to the manager at the end who was MOST surprised (as clearly it had been set at the wrong format for perhaps several weeks and I was the first person to notice/comment!) Anyway was given two free tickets for our trouble, so a win really, as we will be able to download the thin version pretty soon anyway! Incidentally, a VERY good movie!
06/01/2014: We live just 4km from Hazelwood (renamed ‘Churchill’ since he died). This is the wonderful ‘Hazelwood Power Station just as it has been for the last fifty years emitting nothing but clear air - and providing (over that time) approx HALF Victoria’s electricity (down to @25% today). Sometimes in the colder months it appears to emit columns of steam, just as your warm breath appears to on a cold morning, but this condensation is no more ‘pollution’ than your breath is on a winter’s morn! It has been (for Vic – like Wangi in NSW) the wonderful machine which long since brought the bounty of rural electricity to everyone outside Melbourne and cheap electricity to them too, so that everyone could have lights and all manner of beautiful devices - and so that industry could have the cheap energy which built the State’s prosperity. I feel it is a NATIONAL TREASURE – and a very beautiful structure in its own right, encompassing all that was splendid in fifties era power station design. Well done Hazelwood, and wonderful that you can continue to do great things for Vic for the next 25 years.
05/01/2014: EXACTLY: ‘Medical care is not an inalienable right or entitlement. It sits alongside other things that people need and want and which can only be afforded out of earnings. Most people have to, or should, understand that as much as they understand that the cost of food, clothing, shelter, and transport comes out of their earnings. To give an impression that medical care is a free good is equivalent to putting LSD in the water supply. It creates an artificial world; remote from the real world…Most people can afford it with appropriate insurance and with a prioritisation which puts their medical expenditure ahead of any and all spending beyond meeting essential needs. You can’t (or shouldn’t) expect someone else to pay for your visit to a doctor if you are spending money on holidays or on fashionable shoes.’ Peter Smith: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2014/01/free-medicine/
05/01/2014: These guys have re-engineered the block-splitter Watch the vid: http://www.dudeiwantthat.com/outdoors/tools/vipukirves-leveraxe.asp
05/01/2014: Della’s (Xmas) robot vac has been renamed yet again (from ‘Hired Girl’ to ‘K9’) to ‘Alexander’ (Beetle – thank you Melanie!) because of his appearance. In the same way ‘Spot’ the dog began as ‘Jack’, then ‘JR’…Our children suffered similar fates: our first used to be ‘Opie’, then ‘Shenandoah’, finally ‘Irralee’, but now ‘Izza’, and so on. This SHALL be known as ‘Nominative Indeterminacy’. Learned articles will SOON link the phenomenon to climate change, excessive sugar consumption, aliens, Big Oil, & etc ad infin!
04/01/2014:
The Chinese ice-breaker Xue Long is NOW frozen in too, AND the Aurora Australis
is only making ¼ of a knot. I really can’t see how
04/01/2014: Before you waste all that hard-earned on orthodontics for the kids, why not wait and see whether their snaggle-teeth are becoming fashionable: http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-beauty/japanese-snaggletooth-craze-spawns-dental-procedures-girl-group-194500258.html
04/01/2014: Absurd Creature of the Week: Enormous Hermit Crab Tears Through Coconuts, Eats Kittens: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/12/absurd-creature-of-the-week-2/
04/01/2014:
Spot’s birthday trip: Amazing really how (too) busy you can be. THIS lovely
waterfall (one of a series of three!) is just around the corner from us (on the
03/01/2014: I have been really enjoying this website about Mawson’s expeditions (especially with the AGW ship stuck in the summer ice 75 km off-shore!). If I had been Mawson I would have fed the dead Mertz to the dogs in order to maximise the distance the dogs could pull me on the return journey before they were all ‘used up’. Mathematics ought to be able to prove whether he did so. Other things mathematics OUGHT to be able to establish: the correct batting order for the Australian cricket team (eg Do you really get the best overall score by having your best batters batting when the bowler is freshest?) http://mawsonshuts.antarctica.gov.au/cape-denison
Some fair questions HERE: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/01/02/now-that-the-ship-of-fools-is-safe-in-antarctica-tough-questions-need-to-be-asked/
03/01/2014: Unbelievably, the ACT has spent SO much of OUR money it is now functionally BROKE and seeking to be bailed out! WHY did we ever think that the ACT needed a Government of it OWN? Don’t we already have such a surplus of Governments in Oz we should be giving most of them away to deserving poor countries who don’t have enough (just supposing that THEY could afford them – or WANTED them)? http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/capital_city_bail_out/
03/01/2014: Oh, diddums: ‘A Greenpeace campaigner claims he was forced to live on bread and water while being held in a Russian prison because it didn’t offer a vegetarian alternative.’
02/01/2014: Labor’s parliamentary secretary Ed Husic, said ‘people often had to jump through hoops to qualify for the (disability) benefit’ in reply to Matthias Corman’s announcement that the Disability Pension will be reviewed in the light that 1 in 20 working age adults currently receives it (MANY MORE if you are an Afghani Ozzie) and that there will VERY soon be ONE MILLION folks guzzling at that particular trough if nothing is done. Surely folks who CAN ‘jump through hoops’ ARE work ready?
02/01/2014: Quote of the day: Former ABC chairman Maurice Newman, now head of the Prime Minister’s business advisory council: ‘From the UN down, the climate change delusion is a gigantic money tree. It is a tyranny that, despite its pretensions, favours the rich and politically powerful at the expense of the poor and powerless. But the madness of the crowds is waning and, as Mackay writes of the perpetrators: “Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later.” We can only hope it comes before most of us descend into serfdom.’
02/01/2014: Some good ones here. MY personal favourite: “Let’s be under no illusions. The carbon tax was socialism masquerading as environmentalism.” – PM Tony Abbott: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/quotes_of_2013/
01/01/2014:
Tim Blair’s 2014 predictions: some of MY favourites: ‘The first Tony Abbott
blaming of 2014 take place at 12.01am on January 1 following an overcooked
late-night snack at Christine Milne’s Tasmanian home. The Greens leader holds
Abbott’s carbon tax repeal legislation responsible for two scorched chipolatas
and a frankly abysmal fried egg…Natasha Stott-Despoja is released by
authorities after an incident at
01/01/2014: A year in the army! What a great idea for a GAP YEAR! Why not make it universal? NOW it is possible. The previous system where you could only volunteer for 6-8 years even when you could be conscripted for TWO (and would have PREFERRED to volunteer) was nonsense.
01/01/2014:
It’s obvious really (when an adult explains it) but it HAS puzzled me why the
Antarctic ice has been growing, even when the Arctic was shrinking, but (of
course) it IS all that black dust from all that coal we sell