“Hello sailor.”
Open Thread – Weekend 22 April 2023
- Open Thread – Mon 25 Nov 2024
- The more you gets the less you eats
- Open Thread – Weekend 23 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 21 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 18 Nov 2024
“Damn straight.” said in a very deep and masculine voice…
Costume pretty much identifies the shovel-wielder’s cultural identity.
What’s the alternative to surgery that the all wise but non medically trained suggest? Rosie, I am very careful not…
oops. Not all come to envangelise.
Ducked into the barbershop today.
Can I get a cut?
Yep sure, hop in the chair while this other girl gets off the computer- are you in our system?
I hope not, but I’m in the chair now, so go for it, short back n sides.
Errrr okay… errrr… I’ll have to enter you in our system
What, for insurance? In case you lop off an ear or something?
Er because that’s what our boss says, she’s not here
I’ve got cash. [I was being much more urbane than this telling makes it seem]
Yeah you’ve got to be in our system.
No I don’t.
Errr. er mer gerd. Erm [Makes much work of applying various paper towel wrappings and cape, confers with another twenty five year old dimbo, who waddles over with a computer tablet]
Hi er yeah just give me your name and a number and I’ll get you in our system okaiy?
Smith, W, 6078.
[no, I didn’t really say that, I did say-]
Look, I’m not willing to give you my name or any sort of other identity reference. If you can’t do me a haircut, I’ll leave.
Erm erm er okay then [removes barbershop tatt, I remove myself]
…strange days.
Indeed, remember that so well Neville Wran, John Laws and hello hello hello; one Malcolm Blight Turnbull — it was the Allcorp Cleaning Business Pty Ltd if I recall correctly — wow what a brilliant thing, putting all the little local cleaners of schools, hospitals etc… out of work. to say nothing of the lucrative cleaning contracts for TNT, Channel 10, exclusive gyms etc…… talk about dumping on the little people. How very very Labor.
Bruce: I don’t think the Japanese could have spared the forces to land at Darwin or Broome, and I suspect the Japanese presence on Timor was more of a defensive nature. No doubt Top Ender has a more nuanced view on this.
Yes, the 2/2nd and 2/4th Australian Independent Companies (with a smattering of 2/40th Bn men I believe, some Portuguese and of course, the native Timorese), did a great job.
The story of the No. 1 Australian Independent Company section which survived on Bougainville is a fascinating one.
I’ve just watched the very good Netflix documentary on the White Island tragedy. The documentary outlines the lead up to the disaster, and exactly what happened that awful, awful day. The doco is also a testament to human strength and survival, and to how those who survived have since coped with the horrendous burns they received on the island, but it’s also a testament to modern medicine, when you realise how far we have advanced in treating severe bodily burns. The burns from the White Island eruption were caused by white gas and scalding steam, which penetrated through clothes, burning the skin but not damaging clothes. The survivors spoke of their flesh simply falling off their bodies. Burns from scalding steam are horrific. I was sitting imagining the horror of those burns. After watching the documentary, I then made some chicken soup in my pressure cooker (I love pressure cookers). I’ve burnt myself from steam before, it’s agony, and I find it unfathomable to imagine such burns across one’s whole body. Standing in front of the stove, releasing the steam from the pressure cooker, I realised that the science is the same, that the eruption on White Island (which continues) was a massive release of gas and steam.
And you know what’s also terrible? Nobody has taken responsibility for what happened that awful day on the island. Saint Jacinda’s government never did.
I find it quite amazing how much alike are Jacinda Ardern and Alissa Heinerscheid of Bud Light fame.
Wally.
If the holographic version of yourself didn’t check in for a social credit score evaluation before the less-pure flesh version arrived, that’s the problem. HoloWally must precede FleshWally by at least 20 minutes I believe – it’s the price of Soshul Saefty.
The horrific injuries and the deaths of 22 people, 12 of them Australian.
Cassie, my memory is that the White Island tour operators were operating under a full disclosure of the risks, with full insurance too, but Ardern has some serious beak to face in ordering private helicopter operators to stay out and wait for the coastguard, and then ordering the coastguard choppers to bypass triage from the waiting paramedic ambulances on shore for the much longer trip to a regional hospital.
The “papers, bitte!” routine of 2020-2022 is still front of mind, Muddy. I never complied then, and I’m not getting lulled into a soft start now.
Fair enough – but it’s a volcano, and an active volcano at that. Seismology will only take you so far*, and people will happily spend cash to go near them so they can say they have – thus spawning an excellent sideline for the cruise industry.
The thing was simmering for years, which is less than a heartbeat in geological terms.
*Volcanoes and earthquakes. Can’t be predicted with certainty, although predicted 100% of the time with hindsight – like Mount St. Helens in 1980.
Hehe, sorry Muddy. It’s something that I’ve poked military Cats in their soft spots with from time to time.
The hypothesis is this: if the Japanese landed two divisions in Darwin in early 1942 they’d overwhelm the brigade we had in place. Then they could form a perimeter and sit, much like they did in Rabaul.
What would be the political result of a Japanese beachhead in Northern Australia?
It’d consume Canberra and the voters utterly! All attention would be focused onto it. Yet the logistics of getting any forces there would be prohibitive. I can imagine an immediate crash project to build a railway north out of Alice Springs. For sure we would not’ve had the political will to reinforce Port Moresby and Milne Bay the way we did. And the USN would have a great deal of difficulty trying to fight in the Arafura Sea rather than the Coral Sea.
It could’ve put the war back by two years, since the Labor Government would be completely distracted.
(Don’t bother to reply. It’s an interesting what if, but really not worth much discussion!)
If I were a Japanese in their high command I wouldn’t invade Australia. I’d go ahead with the idea of cutting it off from the USA. Eventually those Aussies would sue for peace.
“Cassie, my memory is that the White Island tour operators were operating under a full disclosure of the risks, with full insurance too, but Ardern has some serious beak to face in ordering private helicopter operators to stay out and wait for the coastguard, and then ordering the coastguard choppers to bypass triage from the waiting paramedic ambulances on shore for the much longer trip to a regional hospital.”
The doco seems to contradict any “full disclosure”. My take from the documentary is that there was a somewhat lackadaisical attitude towards the dangers of the volcano on the island. Anyway, it’s just a terribly sad story, and as Tinta said above, horrific injuries and the deaths of 22 people, 12 of them Australian.
“Fair enough – but it’s a volcano, and an active volcano at that. Seismology will only take you so far*, and people will happily spend cash to go near them so they can say they have – thus spawning an excellent sideline for the cruise industry.”
I agree, nobody should have been on the island. It’s since been closed to tourists, the thing is, it should never ever have been opened to tourists.
Barry Humphries has died.
Sir Les Patterson has been approached for a comment.
The Japanese Army had done their sums – Nine to twelve divisions to occupy the country, of a total order of battle of thirty eight divisions, eighty percent of which was in China, and half a million tons of merchant shipping to transport and supply that force. As you say, far easier to isolate this country and wait.
Barry Humphries has died.
“Barry Humphries has died.”
Sad, sad news. I’m glad he passed away here in Oz.
I’m with ya there, Wally. My refusal to lie supine and bare my belly has resulted in a dramatic decrease in my quality of life. I don’t regret the decision, but could have done without the subsequent financial and psychological damage. I’ve vowed to never again in my lifetime vote for a political party that existed during the covidiocy.
The White Island disaster came out of nowhere. I have a look at it each week – the Kiwi’s geological service Geonet has volcano webcams and activity reports. They haven’t fixed the crater rim webcam because of the danger but there’s one looking at the island from the mainland.
For years and years White Island had just steamed quietly. Then it had a very short phreatomagmatic eruption exactly when the poor tourists were visiting. Completely out of the blue. It’s just an example that the world is a dangerous place, which we humans can’t fully predict and certainly can’t control. Sometimes no matter what you do you can be unlucky.
White island’s eruption history can be seen here.
As a geologist I can tell you vulcanology in my field has a high casualty rate. Adern is a vacuous clown promoted well beyond her ability but I agree with the above. If you want to visit an active volcano there’s some personal risk.
The actions of the emergency services suggest said vacuous clown or lackey injected themselves trying to micromanage a situation that should have been left to the commanders on the ground. My thoughts anyway.
Vale, Sir Les.
I still regard the Japanese aim of isolating Australia with some perplexity. Did they really have the naval and air resources to carry it out? While they could threaten the most direct routes (and certainly New Caledonia is pretty darn close), actually BLOCKING all passage seems unrealistic.
Wow another piece of the old Australia has departed.
RIP
My favourite memory of Humphries was a description he had of his mother. They’d gone to someone’s home for afternoon tea and cake was served.
Comment…“Bought”.
A wonderful snapshot of 50’s snobbery.
I don’t have a reference, but they were planning on occupying New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa.
Barry Humphries could describe the Australia of old so well. I remember him talking about the stifling sectarianism of Melbourne in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Humphries’ mother, a Presbyterian, had a brother who married a Roman Catholic…oy vey. His mother then refused to associate with her brother and his wife. Humphries, as a young man, would visit his uncle and his wife and as he said, they were very nice people!
A blocking force not an invasion. A political stratagem not a military one.
Once the 23rd Bgd was overwhelmed the Japanese could’ve withdrawn one division for other assignment.
The advantage of a defensive position based on Darwin is that they’d have good air basing, support from Timor, and neither the Australian Army nor the RAN could get to it. Nearly as impregnable as Rabaul was. Yet it’d be a magnet for every politician in the country.
In the Hair Product Derby, Geelong are handing it out to the Sydney Mancravers – sans lube.
White Island erupted continually from 1975 until 2000, then in 2012 and 2016 when the eruptions were at night, and infamously in December 2019 in broad daylight, resulting in loss of 22 lives.
The bottom line is that the island was always dangerous, and tourists should never have been allowed on the island.
VBA contracts under $1M are boiler-plate with no rise and fall
I heard it from a builder
Interesting that, when Douglas MacArthur was ordered to Australia, his orders specifically stated that his mission was not the defence of Australia against invasion, and he was not to devote any resources to the recapture of any occupied territory of Australia.
we produce soft-cocks with no work ethic or resilience and gimme attitude
apparently they already know how everything works
essentially though, they’re too stupid to teach
A sad footnote to the Montevideo Maru story.
Around 8000 Australians died as prisoners of the Japanese. Around a quarter of them died when their unmarked prison ships were torpedoed by US submarines, most on the Montevideo Maru and the Rakuyo Maru.
The senior Australian to die as a prisoner of the Japanese, Brigadier Arthur Varley, died with the Rakuyo Maru when she was sunk by USS Sealion (II). IIRC, one of his sons also died as a prisoner of the Japanese. Another was fighting on Bougainville at the end of the war, when the deaths of his father and brother were confirmed.
The USS Pampanito was one of the submarines present at the sinking of the Rakuyo, but did not sink her, instead sinking the Kachidoki Maru, and causing the deaths of some 400 prisoners on her. Pampanito helped with the rescue of around 150 survivors a couple of days later. She is a museum ship, preserved in San Francisco. Reunions of her crew and some of the survivors were held many years after the war.
Bruce, I’m tempted to engage, but the night is getting on and it’s almost time to howl at the moon (or maybe a street light).
Ditto, Zulu. Another day.
Good night all. Thanks for the greetings. I’m pleased to see many of the familiar delcon you-don’t-matters.
One of my great great grandfather’s grandsons was on the Montevideo Maru.
Bruce of Newcastlesays:
April 22, 2023 at 9:08 pm
If I were a Japanese in their high command I wouldn’t invade Australia.
A blocking force not an invasion. A political stratagem not a military one.
Once the 23rd Bgd was overwhelmed the Japanese could’ve withdrawn one division for other assignment.
Would that have been the division that ended up on Guadalcanal? A division can be in only one place at a time.
And it’s goodnight from Australia’s greatest comic creation, Sir Les Patterson.
Oh, I don’t know.
Maybe a computer game would tell us for sure. Or a simulator.
The Americans commenced “unrestricted submarine warfare” against Japan, very soon after Pearl Harbor. When it was proposed to try senior Nazi’s, for waging “Unrestricted submarine warfare” at Nuremberg, certain United States Naval officers pointed out that fact, and at least one offered to give evidence for the defence…
We’ll never have another Humphries. Like Clive James, his acuity and output was very much a product of an education which valued excellence and pushed hard. And a market which valued live performance. The post-Whitlam class of comedians, even the ostensibly brainy ones like Micaleff and Dave Hughes, are lightweights and cyphers for nothing much else but class envy.
One can clearly imagine Sir Les Patterson leaning over and saying in a conspiratorial tone, “well they are from the same stable”.
you deffo should invest more in robots JC … and you’ll be rich beyond your wildest imaginations
BJ – If the Japanese had a citadel in Darwin it would change the dynamics of the whole Solomons campaign. We would not’ve reinforced PNG because we’d be obsessed with the Japanese on Australian soil. So Port Moresby would fall pretty easily – no CMF guys on the Owen Stanleys to stop the overland attack, even if the Battle of the Coral Sea took place.
But if the Japanese were in Darwin, with supply line from Timor and Ambon the political pressure on the USN to attempt a penetration into the Arafura Sea would be quite big. Who knows what would happen then? It’s pretty decent to fight a carrier battle in the Coral Sea and south of the Solomons, but another thing entirely to try it in the restricted sea room of the Torres Strait and points west.
I have no idea what would happen. But Guadalcanal was supposed to be a perimeter defensive bastion. If they had had Darwin as such a bastion would they’ve even needed Guadalcanal?
The alternate history SFs I’ve read are always fun. The US would still have won the war, but maybe in 1946 not 1945. Which isn’t really that much difference in the fullness of things.
With the sad passing of Barry Humphries I fondly remember attending one of his live performances at the Canberra Theatre years ago. Brilliantly funny.
Tomorrow I will spend some hours re-reading that classic written by Sir Leslie Colin Patterson – The Travellers Tool.
If you can keep your margins when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when other trades doubt you,
But make allowance for their conniving too;
If you can sand-bag and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can understand a Gantt chart and not make schemes your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with the builders and corporate investors
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by consulting engineers to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your labour to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one motza of all your winnings
And risk it on another turn of Dutch Auctions,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after your patience is gone,
And so hold on when there is no money left in the job
Except the Will which says to them: ‘F’youse!’
If you can talk with plasterers and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Plumbers—nor lose the common touch,
If neither recession nor loving booms can hurt you,
If all trades count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of smoko, run
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll own a Jet-Ski, my son!
–with apologies to Kipling
Sad to hear about Barry.
I saw him a few times. One time was in the. 90s in NY and he became a celebrity there for a short while over there.
He was doing his Dame Edna skit and I swear, I knew it wasn’t going to work. He’d always got stuck into people from the northern Melbourne burbs when he was local and it was done through interaction with audience members. I thought, Americans would not get all his humor. He picked on a woman from New Jersey and she began to cry. I didn’t see her cry but wifey did. Barry looked mortified but he was really enough of a professional to get through it and continue on.
I wouldn’t invest in, you dickhead. You God Oracle who causes people to shit themselves when they walk into a room. You f… idiot, Trans.
It’s hard making a go of of it without targets? 🙂
Oh God.
OT.
Why does it seem that all “democracy “ has done all over the world is grow huge debts?
You don’t think authoritarian regimes have huge debt? China is estimated to be running at around 250% of GDP. The Soviet Union basically collapsed because of it’s unwieldy debt position.
132andBushsays:
Sheesh! Bingo. 100+
Cassie suffering from misplaced White Island Guilt.
You weren’t there.
You didn’t order them to their deaths.
You don’t have to feel guilty.
Also the authorities didn’t order the tourists to their deaths either.
Natural disaster.
That nobody was at fault for that outcome will not necessarily stop the social phenomenon of somebody being blamed anyway.
Kid had tv on ABC kids.
Play school had a inigie with the abo flag t shirt doing propaganda and Gaia worship including honouring elders etc.
Bastards.
Apparently the guy who did these memes has died. Pity.
Yep, you won’t see another Barry Humphries in your lifetime. I was late to select a book prize one year at school and ended up with A Treasury of Australian Kitch. It will still be in a box around here somewhere.
Cohenite, I am so sorry to hear that. I will miss the memes. A highlight of the week.
oh JC, you’re an easy target
you walking talking single degree-of-freedom system
what’s a single degree-of-freedom system? I hear you ask
well … something like a mass suspended by a spring is an example
only position and velocity, are needed to describe the the system
it can go back and forth and a certain rate
sometimes more, but sometime less
but it’s constrained to only wank back and forth
a bit like your hand on your favorite vector JC
…if you know what I mean
What does that even mean you incoherent drunk?
What a try hard. This is the self described quickest lip on a building site.
Trans, you really make an unpleasant alcoholic.
He’s vectoring again. Doofus, the only person who takes you seriously here is you. No one else does.
JC: nonsense …all the information is in the price
JC: wait, wait a sec … the price is sending me a message … some sort of signal about price
JC: ermg … it’s a price-signal
MT: yep, you finely tuned economic antenna … you pay more because yr too stupid and useless to do it yourself
JC: tradies will be extinct… erm, robots
MT: so your bin is overflowing with tissues. Again?
JC: send me a robot, stat!
MT: the last robot (AI equipped) told you to wank less
JC: I want a robot now dammit!!
MT: yeah … that’s completely blocked [sucks through teeth] that’ll cost you mate … we’re not made of robots you know
Trans. just make sure you’re vectoring around on a building site and plug the A/C unit correctly.
You drunken slob.
keep going JC
would you like me to forward book in another robot service call?
is Monday too soon?
…keep in mind that Tuesday is a Public Holiday
Uuuunnnngghhh
It’s not the same blog experience for you without Liz as the target, is it? She didn’t fight back, while others don’t just fight back; they respond, making you look like a complete asshat. You are a ridiculous drunk. Your only form of argumentation is low IQ condescension as a cover because you add zero to any discussion.
If you believe building sites aren’t going to be massively more automated, you need to brain scan to see if anything’s in there. Now piss off and stop wasting everyone’s time, Mr. Vector.
there is no possible way that building sites will be ‘massively’ automated.
not now and never in 100 years
for somebody that pretends to know so much
you strike me as exceedingly naive
the biggest advance in 50 years has been Microsoft Teams
and you should sit in on a meeting so you can work out how utterly ridiculous you sound
I said to my wife just after I heard the news of Barry Humphries’ passing; “Just watch all the luvvies who disowned him come out a claim him as one of their own.” It didn’t take Phillip Adams long did it?
In the speech Sir Les Patterson gave at Bill Leak’s book launch in 2017, Les disparagingly and ironically referred to “Self-effacing Phillip Adams.” Barry certainly had the pompous old git pegged.
yeah Barry,
we’ll sit here in stunned silence while an arse-hat like JC corrupts a fairly normal forum with simplistic gibber
you go right ahead and keep making mong noises
like it makes everything better
Of course they will, dickhead and it will begin in earnest in a decade. Already, an Australian firm is moving towards automated bricklaying.
That’s okay. I can live with with that. On the other hand I don’t go around calling myself a god oracle and saying people shit themselves when I walk in a room. That’s what you do, you laughable buffoon.
No, the biggest advance in 50 years is you finding this blog.
Why does the view that building sites become massively automated sound ridiculous? You haven’t explained why except made low IQ assertions laced with stupid sounding condescension. It’s now time for you to explain, or go sleep it off, Trans, you Vectorizor.
more apocrypha from the B Comm?
any day now, right?
do you even know any engineers?
don’t just wank ‘massively’ here
go on … ask them how robot plumbers will actually work
That has been going on over 15 years now, still no takers and no future as long as people want individual style housing on blocks of different level. Son didn’t want to be a baker, so picked bricklaying, smart lad makes heaps more than me.
Anyway he pointed out to me years ago, WA firm, wasting money.
Panels for highrise can be factory produced with plumbing and electrics preinstalled, they were doing it since the 70s.
Tears For Fears….repeat.
Tears For Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Official Archive Video)
Will watch in full tomorrow.
——-
Peter Santenello:
Native Tribe on the Edge of Megacity ??
Week In Pictures.
One very strongly suspects the USN was not consulted prior to the deployment of troops to Rabaul in early March 1941, well before the Pacific War had even started. Nor that opinion (assuming they even had one) would have held any weight.
‘An inadequate force: The Rabaul strategy’
Barry Humphries was a legend. Me and the mates used to drink iced cold tubes of foaming Fosters just to be like Barry McKenzie.
Thanks Tom for WIP.
Bud Light getting a deserved thrashing – some crackers there.
Barry Humphries depicted Sir Les as a man of Labor.
Dame Edna is the more likely candidate these days.
Still works.
These days it’s more likely to be a man IN labour.
Looked like Krudd in the Bud Light ad.
I know a fraud who has come on here at the cat several times pretending he’s an engineer but he’s just an A/c repairman.
Trans, do you do reverse cycle?
Says the queen of wanking.
It was an engineer who suggested most homes will be prefabricated in the future requiring far less human input. He was obviously “wanking”. You dickhead.
Here’s a chance for you to finally explain it all to us , you building site genius. Tell us why you believe construction can’t be more automated than it is now.
Go!
Cassie suffering from misplaced White Island Guilt.
You weren’t there.
You didn’t order them to their deaths.
You don’t have to feel guilty.
Also the authorities didn’t order the tourists to their deaths either.
Natural disaster.
That nobody was at fault for that outcome will not necessarily stop the social phenomenon of somebody being blamed anyway.”
Firstly, I’m not suffering from any “misplaced White Island Guilt”, I watched a documentary, quite a good one, about what precisely ensued that awful day, in which the survivors spoke about what happened. But what would those survivors know about what happened? Oh that’s right, “they were there” on the island, when the volcano erupted.
Secondly, I never wrote that it wasn’t a natural disaster, however I do think tourists should never have been allowed on the island. As I wrote last night, the documentary alludes to the tour operator’s casual attitudes about the ongoing dangers of the volcano on the island.
Thirdly, what “guilt”? I don’t feel guilt about White Island, but one can feel “sad”, because disasters, natural or man made are “sad”. I remember watching a documentary on the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and I felt “sad”.
I note your initials are “CCB”, but since you clearly like to ascribe to me above how I think or should think, perhaps your initials should be “CCP”.
Thanx Tom ..
Rosa Parkes getz my laff for the day .. LOL!
Piers Akerman:
The AUKUS deal means we must plunge into the deep end of nuclear technology immediately and there is nothing to indicate any appreciation in Canberra of the massive but essential cultural change necessary.
We are totally unprepared for this challenge.
Further, the government’s proven inability to deal with technological change, let alone the Defence department’s continual failure to grasp the basic concepts of procurement contracts, does not bode well for the $268 billion to $368 billion project.
The Smith-Houston defence review is expected to be released within days but is unlikely to deal with the scope of transformation needed.
Under the AUKUS arrangement initiated by the conservative Scott Morrison government, but signed off by the Labor’s Anthony Albanese, Australia is to receive three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines within the next 10 years and then build up to eight of our own vessels.
To help me understand the task, I consulted two senior US figures with deep (no pun intended) experience in nuclear submarines.
Following meetings with US and Australian naval attaches in Canberra and Washington in recent weeks, former nuclear submarine commander Noel Gonzalez, a serious expert in key military rapid development technologies used in the US submarine fleet, and Mack Hellmann, an expert in undersea acoustics, marine engineering and undersea systems and an adviser to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northrop Grumman Undersea Systems, among other organisations, laid out their thoughts plainly and constructively.
Both are now with the leadership team at Argus, a joint venture between an Australian company and a US holding company, that proposes to leverage its US nuclear submarine experience with technology-transfer experience to assist in the development of the much-needed industrial base that will enable Australia’s nuclear submarine program.
Both men spoke frankly about the problems the US and the UK (our AUKUS partners) experienced with their nuclear submarine programs and warned that we risk making the same mistakes made in the 1950s unless we adopt a wholly new model.
Although Australia has had a small operating nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights for 65 years, the operation, let alone building, of a nuclear fleet, needs a total rethink of our nuclear culture and we need to begin preparing now.
The first step in the process would seem obvious, actively encouraging students to take STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) courses and then making nuclear engineering in the navy an attractive career.
The US doesn’t have any spare crew capacity to man Australian vessels. Set a culture of training Australians now, bearing in mind that nuclear subs carry 130-140 personnel, with up to 170 aboard if trainees are also deployed.
For that matter, the US doesn’t have any spare submarine building capacity either, so we will be in line with the US navy for boats as they come off the line and out of refit, and the two US yards building submarines aren’t meeting their targets now.
The latest estimate of the progress on the newest submarine, the Columbia-class, is that it has lost 2.2 million unrecoverable work hours.
One yard, General Dynamics’ Electric Boat company at Groton, Connecticut, is short 7000 workers.
To prevent being captive to the US or the UK (or, God forbid, the French), and to assist in meeting the needed capacity, Australia must begin building a SOTA (state of the art) nuclear certified manufacturing supply base now and avoid being tied to any global conglomerate.
It should go without saying that any involvement by Thales, the French-government defence organisation already deeply engaged in Australia, must be banned as the French simply cannot be trusted whatever former Liberal PM Malcolm Turnbull may dream.
The priority is to build a digital prototype nuclear submarine to begin bringing personnel up to speed. Then we must ensure we can supply uninterrupted power (which means forget variable wind, solar and short-lived batteries) to future nuclear sub ports, and we must be able to provide pure, uncontaminated water for the reactors.
We must have the equipment to monitor radiation levels, and above all, the quality of parts manufactured here must be “submarine safe”, a level equivalent to that required for elements in the space shuttles.
Remember, we face an uncertain world in which two totalitarian leaders, China’s Xi and Russia’s Putin, have shown they don’t care about the West’s rules of war
We must meet our obligations to universal freedom and assist in providing some deterrent to these dictators.
In the world of nuclear submarines, one name stands out globally – Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the father of the US nuclear navy.
Safety was this visionary’s byword and he ensured that, within the limits of the existing technology, his boats were safe and manageable for their crews.
Who will be Australia’s Rickover and usher in our much-needed nuclear age?
Via Tim Blair
Kevin Rudd = Mr Garrison
Here’s monty
Thanks Tom. My picks…
– Tranbo
– Garbage Truck
– If you know…you know
Happy days. 😀
I saw Janet Rice up close once and it wasn’t pretty.
is the outrage mill a feature or a bug?
OK so just like that nuclear subs are ++good. Not complaining, just odd. So the next step is to get nuclear electricity- how about resurrecting John Gorton’s Jervis Bay power station or maybe look into the new Rolls Royce technology.
A member since 2007, Helen Lewers suddenly discovers the Greens weren’t about the environment after all.
Slow learner.
Re Krudd- any there any decent people in the dept foreign affairies?
Some good news you won’t see reported by the MSM.
Despite Relentless Propaganda, Climate Change Skepticism Is Growing; New Polls Show (23 Apr)
A survey conducted by a group within the University of Chicago asked Americans whether humans were causing all or most of climate change.
Whereas 60 per cent held this belief five years ago, that figure has now slumped to 49 per cent.
A recent IPSOS poll which covered two-thirds of the world’s population also found that nearly four people in every 10 believe climate change is mainly due to natural causes.
“Perhaps the most surprising statistic from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) survey is that 70% of Americans are unwilling to spend more than $2.50 a week to combat climate change,” writes Chris Morrison.
“Nearly four in 10 Americans said they were unwilling to pay a couple of dimes. Despite decades of relentless green doomsday agitprop designed to corral populations into living under a collectivist Net Zero-ordered society, it appears that the vast majority of Americans are unwilling to pay even the chump change in their back pockets to stop the climate changing.”
Such skepticism is quite frankly astonishing given that the ‘official narrative’ on man-made climate change has been vehemently amplified by every single major government entity, corporation, media outlet and cultural institution in existence.
The hip pocket issue is the dangerous one for governments. That most people refuse to pay even a hundred bucks a year to “fight” “climate change” shows that as soon as they notice they’re already spending thousands will make them very angry indeed.
Add this to the EV poll I put up the other day which said 71% of Republican voters would never ever buy one. The climate stuff is being squeezed down to a rump of far-left nutters and the ordinary people have been wising up to the scam.
LTG (R) Mike Flynn
@GenFlynn
Former deputy director of CIA Mike Morrell and all the others that signed this letter will go down in history as having been participants in the overthrow of the United States of America.
Obama, Bush and Clinton have started an NGO to fly migrants into the US
New Biden Rule Will Redistribute High Risk Loan Costs To Homeowners With Good Credit
Report: Merrick Garland Identified as Official Misleading Congress in Hunter Biden Tax Probe
EVs Fall Short of EPA Estimates by a Much Larger Margin Than Gas Cars in Our Real-World Highway Testing
I saw that too indolent- Bush trash again proving that the US has been governed by the same clique since Reagan left. Apart from the 2017-2020 interlude of course.
After 53 Earth Days, Society Still Hasn’t Collapsed
Nevertheless, it’s an encouraging sign. If she gets out more she may also start to discover that some of the other green shibboleths aren’t quite so rosy either. She might even read Dorothea Mackellar and find out that floods and fires and droughts have always been ferocious in Australia.
I think she is the sort of learner who might discover this when she spends a week without electricity.
was it xe/xir that told you about the robots, JC?
dunno everybody else, but if found myself talking Catallaxy’s Chief Economist about robots and the building industry, I’d deffo refrain from tipping him full of shit out of respect for his high office
unless I couldn’t help myself
and look at you … you sound almost like you don’t like playing rhetorical games
Sunday morning coming down! ..
nothing guaranteed to shake away the joys of awakening than an early morning shop! ……
Coles “homebrand” toast loaf (700g) Friday .. $2.20 …. this morning $2.70 .. 3 months ago $1.50 …….
I enjoyed the Builders’ “If”.
My son got a framed version of the poem when he turned 21 (amongst many…many far more desirable things). I’m toying with the idea of modifying your version for his sector of the building industry for s and g’s.
So, as JC says, the brewer that makes Bud Light has effectively sacked the frightbat it hired to do a brand makeover, who ended up almost destroying Bud Light.
It’s just that woke managements are totally dishonest about the Machiavellian game-playing going on in the backroom:
RTWT
Trans
Still waiting to explain to us why construction can’t become more automated.
You can’t because you’re a buffoon with no redeeming qualities.
Alissa Heinerscheid will be in stunned disbelief that the entire country does not share her opinion on something, despite having run her stupid, stupid idea past three of her similarly insulated mates by way of market research.
Has a lot on his plate right now.
That said, and given the existing low bar he’s guaranteed to be comparatively successful no matter what he does.
Barry Humphries brown bread
despite having run her stupid, stupid idea past three of her similarly insulated mates by way of market research.
Mmmyes were they ponytailed men Dragger? I will see myself out
Bruce of Ncl
BJ – If the Japanese had a citadel in Darwin it would change the dynamics of the whole Solomons campaign. We would not’ve reinforced PNG because we’d be obsessed with the Japanese on Australian soil. So Port Moresby would fall pretty easily – no CMF guys on the Owen Stanleys to stop the overland attack, even if the Battle of the Coral Sea took place.
But if the Japanese were in Darwin, with supply line from Timor and Ambon the political pressure on the USN to attempt a penetration into the Arafura Sea would be quite big. Who knows what would happen then? It’s pretty decent to fight a carrier battle in the Coral Sea and south of the Solomons, but another thing entirely to try it in the restricted sea room of the Torres Strait and points west.
No. With the Japanese focussed on Darwin, Moresby becomes a dead end, as the USN starts the MacArthur/SW Pacific Area march along the northern coast of PNG two years earlier, takes Morotai and Biak, and isolates the Japanese garrison in Darwin, while meeting the Japanese carriers north of the Celebes.
“Alissa Heinerscheid “
She’s the fall girl. She did nothing without senior management’s knowledge and approval. The woke virus permeates through ALL large corporations and organisations, most particularly through HR, advertising and marketing departments.
Men?
How dare you.
Boambee John says:
April 22, 2023 at 5:46 pm
JC
It’s been a looooong time since home builders assembled frames on site from raw timber.
1985 in my case – 5 years when my youngest daughter was born from 1981-1986 working weekends and nights to do 2 storey full brick extension to rear of existing 3 bedroom, triple fronted brick house
excavated, found roman style brick chamber septic tank . what looked like a coffin on top of ground, turned into multpile chambers the further the excavation went – coupled with flimsy 1 room brick veneer extension tacked on old house had no foundations, with enginner went with floating on ground slab tied back into right side sandstone with a lot of reo and had to double depth before no foundation coming up with reinforced concrete block wall under dodgy extension – Bondek external form and 30 Mpa concrete for bottom slab – Bondek for 1st floor slab and 30 Mpa again
Subbed Hip & Gabling into existing roof to 2 old carpenters (a lot of timber carried down the drive from front street, along with loads of bricks, Big RSJ supporting 1st floor slab and roof tiles)
The Hip & Gabling by the Old Carpenters is real timber, not the match sticks of today and a work of art
Wow, the climate crazies are getting even crazier.
ANU Climate Scientists Wargame UN Martial Law and A Global Military Coup (22 Apr)
Seeing that nothing much is happening in the real world climatewise this hyperbolic stuff is quite amazing. If they’re this off the planet bonkers the ANU would seem to be an excellent place to not study at.
Latest Voice noos, James Campbell Hun:
The ‘Yes’ campaign has launched an online store where supporters can donate and buy merchandise to support the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
The online donation portal will go live on Sunday after the Yes23 campaign cleared the last hurdle to accept tax-deductible donations.
In October the Albanese government granted Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition deductible gift recipient (DGR) status in the mini-budget, which means donations of more than $2 can be written off against tax.
However it took until March for the government to extend DGR status to any campaign vehicle for the No case.
But even though the Yes case had a five-month head start, it has been unable to capitalise on it because it also needed to clear regulatory hurdles in each of the states and territories before it could accept donations. The last state to tick off was Queensland earlier this month.
The push to raise money comes as the Yes campaign prepares to ramp up its on-the-ground campaigning.
In the past two months it has registered or briefed more than 5000 volunteers.
Last week, more than 500 volunteers attended training sessions in Sydney, Newcastle, Coffs Harbour and Nowra on how to push the Voice with the public.
There have also been sessions in Victoria run by the Victorian Women’s Trust.
At these events volunteers have been given instruction on how to run “kitchen table conversations” about the Voice with up to ten invitees in private homes.
This is a campaign technique pioneered by former Victorian independent MP Cathy McGowan in her successful 2013 bid for the federal seat of Indi.
Dean Parkin, campaign director for the Yes Campaign Alliance, said the campaign was moving to engage more with the general public.
“People want this conversation out of the Canberra bubble and in their communities, which is where it belongs,” he said.
“Through our volunteer network we are supporting the conversation where it should be, in the hands of the Australian people, on the ground at community events, and around barbecues.
“The donation portal makes our campaign a nationwide effort to welcome every single Australian into the conversation on constitutional recognition.
“Any contribution, big or small, will support our decades-long drive to have Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people recognised in our constitution.”
The Yes23 online store will also offer T-shirts, stickers, corflutes, tote bags and badges with Yes branding.
Mr Parkin said the campaign had been “inundated” with requests from people wanting to show their support.
“With the launch of our merch so you’ll see a lot more Yes on the streets in the weeks and months ahead,” he said.
Yes 23 is the umbrella organisation for groups campaigning for the Voice.
calli, re the dying off of lilies – I suspect it depends where you live. We get hard frosts here and the foliage does die off completely in autumn/winter. Not hard to realise that that might not be the case in your area.
So, for the benefit of our correspondent, the answer is probably – it’s safe to dig them up anytime after the cold weather sets in, whatever that means where you live.
Speaking of which – the trees are turning around here, gorgeous spectacles everywhere. In Canberra, the view from the top of the Telstra Tower is magnificent – a must for visitors, and also locals who have not seen it before. It really is absolutely spectacular.
It wasn’t until watching (briefly, before the red button was clicked) an episode of ‘Rogue Heroes’ that I discovered that GHQ Middle East employed black female 2LT staff officers during WWII.
It is always such a joy when revelations explode into your life.
MT: Hey Siri, navigate me to Spencer St, Melbourne
Siri: getting directions to Spenser Ct, Mentone
MT: Hey Siri, have you got a hearing problem? I said M-e-l-b-o-u-r-n-e
Siri: I dont know what you want me to do
MT:Forget it
Siri: Fine!
look JC,
yesterday you said it was gonna be robots all the way down
and today it’s why can’t it be ‘more’ automated
it’s your own (maybe) idiotic proposition … you defend it
make a case for the ‘pro’
and I’ll keep taking the piss outta you
deal?
Yep. This topic has been raised and rejected a few times. It would have been wasteful and inconsequential to take it, logistically terrible to maintain it and very difficult to hold it.
It was one thing for Curtin to stand up to Churchill when he wanted Australian troops to reinforce the arse end of Empire on the other side of the world from Blighty.
It would be quite another for Curtin to demand that FDR and Macarthur spend everything they had retaking a joint 3000 km from Brisbane and separated by 50 degree desert, instead of focussing on the far more important island chains off the north eastern seaboard.
The ‘political pressure’ wouldn’t have amounted to jack shit.
Ah yes, Indi. Plenty of unorthodox electoral techniques tried there from what I recall.
MacArthur’s orders are contained in the Official History of the United States Army in World War Two. His mission was the drive North – he was NOT to devote any resources to recapturing occupied Australian territory.
go for it
I did have fun with that
this bit, was pretty much how my week went.
BJ – You still have it exactly backwards. The Japanese would not be “focusing on Darwin”, quite the opposite. Anyone understanding Australian political consciousness would know the result of putting a force into the then relatively poorly defended Darwin would be to have the Allies “focusing on Darwin” to the detriment of elsewhere.
Yamamoto’s strategy was to establish an outer ring of defensive strong points as far east and south east as they could support. Darwin would be an excellent one of those with political value far in excess of its actual military value. Highly defensible due to remoteness and Jap control of the air, relatively easy to supply, yet would draw Australian forces like a magnet.
Then once the Allies gained the necessary strength to threaten the place the garrisoning Jap division would just sail away back to Timor.
You would have no 18th Brigade in Milne Bay, no 39th Bn in Kokoda, they’d be slogging up the dusty roads towards Darwin. 9th Division and the half of 6th Div that Curtin was persuaded to leave in Ceylon would also be forced back to Australia due to intense squawking from Labor. The results would be nearly as disruptive of Allied plans as Singapore was.
It’s the same thing, you stupid buffoon.
Discussion of the USN torpedo scandal above brings to mind Australia’s equally egregious example of bureaucratic offensive arse covering costing the lives of our wonderful young people.
That the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation’s Beaufort attack bomber was a death trap was demonstrated over and over again.
It wasn’t until senior RAAF officers threatened mutiny that anyone took notice. And the notice taken was the head of CAC convincing the very human but incompetent PM Curtin that very stern disciplinary action (treason was his demand) should be taken against RAAF officers who spoke out against the travesty.
It took the death of RAAF hero Charles Learmonth for the aircraft to be finally grounded and rectification enacted.
GAF Nomad anyone?
And, now these Government clowns think that they are going to produce missiles. At least they won’t have crews, but stand well clear when they light the blue touch paper.
UNSW Canberra alumna Dr Elizabeth Boulton has always enjoyed a challenge and continues to confront the security issues of today.
Graduating with an Honours degree in Literature in 1994, and a Master of Business Management in 2001, Dr Boulton relished both the physical and intellectual challenges of her time at UNSW Canberra.
The ‘Dr’ schtick hasn’t impressed me for decades. Most Unis, all I reckon, are, like the ABC, beyond reform. As for the ANU, another institution infested with marxists but, even worse, it’s based in Canbra and nothing good comes out of canbra.
Biggles and the Human Skeleton . Sttttttrriiiiike three, your out!
Lol. I once had a private client present me with a Gant chart. Hard to know how to respond. With commercial work you expect it, particularly qangos and departments. Box ticking and they wouldn’t know if their backsides were on fire.
Looking back at the mad rush before the Oi-lympics and some of the shoddy work done in preparation…my stuff is still there and doing nicely.
On site-cut frames…usually done if it’s a reno/extension, and the roof likewise depending on the design. The Beloved’s cousin had the entire frame cut on site for that reason – they demolished the house, left one wall standing and got a basically new project through on a CDC. Council Not Happy.
Still in that time of year when it is tricky to get your nightly bedding arrangements just right. Just realised most of mine left with me from Fiona Stanley Hospital. Those hospital cotton blankets are great for the shoulder seasons.
KD – Curtin would order all Australian forces back to Australia if MacArthur and Churchill did not provide sufficient support. Than includes RAAF and RAN as well as the divisions. He went fairly close to that a few times, although that was more in context of arm twisting. Having Japanese on the Australian continent though would cause apocalyptic domestic pressure on Canberra to “do something”. Curtin would be forced by public and media pressure with danger of the government falling.
Recall that the only reason Curtin allowed the 9th Div to remain in Egypt was that Roosevelt agreed to provide a US infantry division for the Australian east coast. That sort of horse trading was quite intense at the time. Churchill was likewise under very significant pressure for RN ships to be sent to Perth, which was a promise he’d made to Curtin if Singapore fell. The Poms managed to fob him off and no significant RN force ever got to Perth (nor was it needed), but that would be a very different political equation if the Japs had actually landed in Darwin.
they’re never happy
I front-ran them once in the way-back
knowing that a Heritage Overlay was coming I made damned sure the chimney adjoining the kitchen and lounge ‘disappeared’ before submitting a for a permit.
as far as I know, council is still trying to find that chimney
Too right Bear.
5 storey apartment going up on an old Perth City Council site opposite me. About a dozen guys roll up each day unless it is a big concrete pour swarming with subbies. You can practically tell what everybody will be doing for the day weeks in advance.
These people live on another planet- planet I despise regular working people who do real jobs
“I am here, in good will, to challenge thinking and pioneer new thought.”
UNSW Canberra alumna Dr Elizabeth Boulton has always enjoyed a challenge and continues to confront the security issues of today.
Graduating with an Honours degree in Literature in 1994, and a Master of Business Management in 2001, Dr Boulton relished both the physical and intellectual challenges of her time at UNSW Canberra.
“It was a privilege to receive military training, I have found it so applicable to other work environments and problems. The older I get, the more I see how much wisdom is in some of those fundamental teachings, such as the principles of leadership,” she said.
Having completed her PhD at the Australian National University on the topic ‘Climate and Environmental Change: Time to reframe threat?’, and disillusioned with past approaches to security strategies, Dr Boulton is now leading the way with a plan to fight the primary threat to our planet, referred to as the ‘hyperthreat’.
“I can’t believe we face the destruction of planetary life and yet there is no effective plan in place,” Dr Boulton said.
Shocked that there was no security plan addressing the growing threat of climate and environmental change, Dr Boulton published An Introduction to Plan E, in partnership with the US Marine Corps University.
“Plan E is a climate-eco centred security strategy where ‘E’ stands for Earth, Emergency, Everyone, Everything and Everywhere.
“It is Phase one – the planning and preparatory period – of a longer six-phase mission, which will unfold over 80 years. It is a concept of operations, a grand strategy for how humanity can contain the hyperthreat of climate and environmental change,” Dr Boulton said.
“What’s unique about Plan E is that it positions climate and environmental change – the hyperthreat – as the main threat, not a threat multiplier.”
Dr Boulton believes the current threat posture is incoherent and that the security sector needs to think deeply about fundamental justification when approaching critical threat to the Earth.
“What will we – the security sector – do as the hyperthreat vanguard arrives, and starts its preliminary attacks? Simply adopt a passive, reactive stance and help clean up the mess? Or will the security pivot and help humanity fight the most complex threat it has even known?” Dr Boulton questioned.
“It is an uncomfortable intellectual journey to embark upon, but I think we owe it to the public to explore all options.”
Dr Boulton will join the Conflict and Society Research Group in an upcoming seminar to delve further into the insights and ideas within Plan E.
Interesting to see how things change. Now no sign of precast tilt up that caused Kennett such consternation. All cast in situ with reusable cells for floor slabs and walls. A maze of reo around the lift wells.
oh … a bit like Momentum and Kinetic Energy ?
KD
The ‘political pressure’ wouldn’t have amounted to jack shit.
Curtin was besotted with MacArthur, who would, with fine rhetoric, have convinced him that he had the Japanese trapped in Darwin, from where they could not go anywhere significant.
With Rabaul then at the extreme end of the Japanese advance, and the need to support the two Japanese divisions in Darwin (probably from Surabaya, not Timor or Ambon, which lacked major port facilities), the leapfrog along the north coast of PNG would have advanced rapidly.
And the US submarines based in Perth and Exmouth would have had fine pickings between Surabaya and Darwin. War ends mid-1944, the resources released enable the war in Europe to end in late 1944, with the Russians still well to the east.
All fantasy of course, but each change in Japanese strategy would lead to further ripples outwards, with unpredictable results, that might be, in the words of Hirohito in August 1945, “Not necessarily in Japan’s favour”.
The Japanese would never have made it to Darwin for the same reason they never made it to Port Moresby by sea.
They lost the necessary air cover for either when Shoho was sunk, Shokaku put out of action, and Zuikaku had her air group heavily attrited.
Matrix. If only I had had that thought.
I sold out rather than attempt to cope with the Council Bolsheviks.
I should have got one of Rivkin s ‘associates’ to drop a match while holding a can of ‘accellerant’ in the best Eastern Suburbs council defeating tradition.
…what date for the Voice ref?
Global warming causes North Africans to riot in Germany…
Loony Science: German Mainstream Media Blame Riots At Public Pools On Climate Change (22 Apr)
I have this weird recollection that North Africa might be somewhat hotter that Germany ever is at its anemic hottest. So this is a bit of a stretch even for the climate crazies. But if the ANU says there will be bodies rotting in the streets then a few riots at swimming pools would seem relatively sane by comparison I suppose.
The greatest physical challenge of academia is lifting the coffee cup at morning tea. The greatest mental challenge is working with other academics.
DISCLOSURE: I did work experience at UWA soil science area. It was very valuable. I left uni at the earliest possible opportunity.
Good morning, Trans-Vector.
the funniest part was that I used the bricks to pave from the front gate to the back patio
the Council’s chief planning nomenklatura was asking me about the chimney while he was standing on it
i larfed me tits off
not literally
obviously
Bruce of Newcastlesays:
April 23, 2023 at 9:12 am
BJ – You still have it exactly backwards. The Japanese would not be “focusing on Darwin”, quite the opposite. Anyone understanding Australian political consciousness would know the result of putting a force into the then relatively poorly defended Darwin would be to have the Allies “focusing on Darwin” to the detriment of elsewhere.
Putting a significant proportion of the force used to capture the whole of south-east Asia into Darwin, with the logistics demands to supply the force, would have required a degree of focus.
A single independent company in Timor tied up much of a Japanese division through most of 1942, with minimal support from Darwin. That would have continued, while the North Australia Observer Unit could have done much the same to the Darwin garrison. Chasing ground generally ends badly, with over-extension.
And the most distant parts of the proposed Japanese defensive perimeter, Guadalcanal, New Hebrides and New Caledonia, would never have been threatened.
One thing that made me realize many years ago what a despicable, degenerate place canbra is was that AIDEX protests in Canbra. One of the protestors was on a ‘scholarship’ from the Dept of Defense.-Back when the left disdn’t like the military-industrial complex
As late as Albo thinks he can get away with. I think he is starting to appreciate why Keating, Howard and Gillard, all of whom didn’t lack political nous, kicked this stuff down the road.
You first, Dr Boulton.
Here’s a candle.
It could split the socialists and environmentalists, with both losing cred – the Greens would be left a radical socialist party, and wherever the greenies go they will no longer support the radical socialist causes.
All greenies have a socialist bent, but real greenies are misanthropes who dream of an anarchistic idyllic condition with no governments, nations, police etc. The Greens want a massive state that displaces all individual initiative and all choices that they have not already made.
In fact, they will spend a lot of time publicly denouncing and calling each other out. There was only one interesting thing about the different socialist groups at uni: the hostility, jealousy, and animated vituperation they direct to each other.
Play them for the fools they are.
Bruce, PS:
yet would draw Australian forces like a magnet.
Not really, by the time that any significant Australian force could have been supported in an advance on Darwin from the south, the magnet would have been isolated by US submarines operating from Perth and Exmouth, which would no longer have had to traverse the Indonesian archipelago to find their targets. Happy time!
They are good for all seasons, IMHO.
They are really daggy looking, but I bought one anyway after my only adult stint in hospital. I don’t know what temperature range they encompass, but it is wider than any other bedcover I’ve ever had. Over a sheet in summer, as comfortable as is possible when there’s not a heatwave. Adds a lot of value in winter as well. But as you say, best of all when the temperature changes a lot during the night.
A bit of styling and a marketing campaign might work wonders.
I know that doonas are all the go these days, but I don’t like them much. In particular, if you get too hot it’s all or nothing – you can’t just peel off a layer.
When I was a student living in a very cold group house in Canberra, I had a couple of grey Army blankets obtained who knows where. They were not very thick, but they were very dense and did a great job in winter.
One of the best things about living in a cool climate is the simple joy of a warm bed when the ambient temperature is a bit chilly. 🙂
Exactly.
Darwin today is separated from the rest of the country by the tyranny of distance, associated geography and climate. 80 years ago – orders of magnitude.
bons – a box of matches is more useful than a room full of lawyers if you are seeking redevelopment approval.
hi sancho … are you playing Laurel or Hardy today?
A proclaimed peace protest became a wild confrontation outside the AIDEX ’91 arms exhibition yesterday when 200 protesters were arrested, a woman run over and truck windscreens broken.
Police and protesters clash outside the entrance to the AIDEX arms shows.
Police and protesters clash outside the entrance to the AIDEX arms shows. CREDIT:PETER MORRIS
As Federal Police held a thin blue line, protesters shouted and waved placards before being carried off a picket line and placed in waiting buses and paddy wagons.
Independent Senator Jo Vallentine and representatives of the green and peace lobbies were arrested, as were a doctor, many professionals, a woman said to have been a nun, a couple of punks and even a former Playboy Playmate of the Year.
The protest over AIDEX (the Australian International Defence Equipment Exhibition) is expected to reach a peak this morning when police will try to allow it to open by clearing remaining protesters from entrances.
The main clash yesterday occurred at one entrance, where a veteran of the Chaelundi forest campaign had set up poles in tripod formation above about 170 protesters huddling arm in arm in front of the gate.
David Friend and Tim Hughes of British Aerospace at their stall at the show.
David Friend and Tim Hughes of British Aerospace at their stall at the show.CREDIT:PETER MORRIS
Until yesterday, the police had been far outnumbered. They were joined by the Tactical Response Group and plain clothed officers, swelling numbers to 150.
About 1.30 pm, the order was given to remove the protesters. Many went quietly, but a few struggled violently as they were dragged away. The last to go was the man perched on the tripod. In a desperate act of defiance as the police pulled him down, he attached himself to a pole with a bicycle lock around his neck and threw the key away. The lock was removed with a service angle grinder, and he too was carted off.
There were more arrests later when police dismantled three interlocking tripods, each with a protester on top, at the public entrance. Others were removed at a third entrance, after they blockaded it with an overturned car, burning tyres and 44-gallon drums.
Another shot of the fighting on November 25, 1991.
Another shot of the fighting on November 25, 1991.CREDIT:PETER MORRIS
Police were wearing rubber gloves, ostensibly to protect against the transmission of the AIDS virus. They were of no use to one policewoman, who was bitten on the buttocks in Sunday night’s melee and is to be tested for the virus. She also had two ribs broken.
Those arrested were charged with breaching the peace at special sittings of the ACT Magistrate’s Court last night. All were allowed to go free, but harsher penalties are likely if they are arrested again at AIDEX.
Seconds before she was arrested, Senator Vallentine defended the protest. “This is evil, and we have made a peaceful protest against it,” she said.
RELATED ARTICLE
‘Carrying placards and singing “Solidarity for Ever,” the “Internationale,” and other songs, the demonstration continued for more than two hours’. July 12, 1941
Flashback
From the Archives, 1941: 300 demonstrate for hunger strikers
A protest co-ordinator, Mr Jacob Grech, who was also arrested, said the arms sold at the exhibition would be used for massacres similar to those in Dili.
However, an AIDEX spokesman said last night there would be no Indonesian exhibits or delegates at the exhibition. He said about 90 per cent of the exhibits were not rockets, missiles or military vehicles, but computer technology.The Sydney Morning Vomit from 1991- the peace protestors weren’t very peaceful.
for creating ambiance, tea-candles are much underrated
Bruce of Newcastlesays:
April 23, 2023 at 9:27 am
The ‘political pressure’ wouldn’t have amounted to jack shit.
KD – Curtin would order all Australian forces back to Australia if MacArthur and Churchill did not provide sufficient support. Than includes RAAF and RAN as well as the divisions.
Hope they were good swimmers. The British and Americans effectively controlled sea transport.
This whole saga is a mildly amusing fantasy, but Yamamoto was looking east not south. It never happened, and was never going to happen.
Zatara – the sea room around Darwin is a very different fish to fry than the Coral Sea. The USN would be unlikely to risk passage of the narrow Torres Strait bottleneck in the face of land-based Japanese aircraft.
The advantage of Darwin is that the terrain is good for airbasing, and the Japs could return a damaged airstrip to service a lot more easily than we could put them out of action at that time. So there would be significant air assets in Darwin as well as Timor – and we know from Top Ender’s fine histories the effect of the Timor-based air forces. I doubt the USN carriers would be tasked with missions that far west, especially with the Japanese carriers in Guam or Yap. And of course the British had nothing substantial nearby, especially after the raid on Ceylon.
There have also been sessions in Victoria run by the Victorian Women’s Trust.
At these events volunteers have been given instruction on how to run “kitchen table conversations” about the Voice with up to ten invitees in private homes.
In other words, they’re going door to door compiling a list of Voting Intentions and it’s being funded by the Commonwealth.
Wife tells me that as of Monday masks no longer required in Qld nursing homes. She’s delighted, everyone knows that they are useless, they have them off whenever they’re speaking with residents as the poor old souls can’t understand what people say when muffled. Just wondering what the rules are in the rest of Australia, I bet Vic will be the last to remove the mandates.
If you get them just right they are magical- so light and warm. My 50% feather one got chucked (not by me) due to …. ahem … “advanced discolouration”. A cheap and nasty synthetic one is heading for the tip this winter now I’m back home.
Sancho has been busy editing The Woke Times.
This is so hilarious in a face-palming way. In Beery project management, no plan survives 10 years, let alone 80. She may have well have been trained in fairy finding and unicorn hunting for all the good it did her.
A day in the life of “renewables” chart ….
https://postimg.cc/64RLNLRh
and good morning to you too titsoff
BJ – They’d be ordered to withdraw from combat. That would focus hearts and minds wonderfully at supreme Allied command level I assure you. Curtin was pretty good at threatening such actions if the UK and US got too high handed, which they did quite regularly. Churchill in particular was tied in knots over this after Pearl Harbor. He was forced to provide sea transport for the 6th & 7th Divs, which he tried very hard not to do. I kind of liked Curtin’s style even though he was typical Labor.
Groogs, did you get that one with this months KKK e newsletter?
Top Pathologist confirms Cancer, Infertility & Strange Blood Clots are common side effects of Covid-19 Vaccination
To outdoor pursuits!
Most renovation jobs are completed as you prepare the house for sale.
Gonzalo Lira
@GonzaloLira1968
These people are so incredibly ignorant not because they’re stupid, but because their public schools were daycare centers for their working parents—not schools.
What happened in the Coral Sea battle and its aftermath made a Japanese invasion of Port Moresby or Darwin a non-starter.
What the Japanese knew was that they had lost ALL their naval air cover during Coral Sea and the Allies still had Yorktown somewhere about.
What they didn’t know at that moment was that TF-16 (Enterprise and Hornet) had done a quick turnaround after launching the Doolittle raid and were heading for the South Pacific. Not in time for Coral Sea, but in excellent time to conduct a feint around Nauru and Ocean Island, taking pains to make sure they were observed doing so before quietly slipping away back to Pearl Harbor to prepare for Midway.
Upon hearing the spotting report Adm Inoue immediately cancelled the Moresby Operation and left forthwith to return to Rabaul/Truk, thus ending the last legitimate threat of Japanese invasion anywhere in the South Pacific.
David Scott
@Albion_Rover
Tell us @NHSLanarkshire why did miscarriages suddenly double in your area?
my brickie reckons automated brick laying could be a thing
not for renovations and relatively small jobs but
could be used by volume builders because they have relatively few floorplans that are replicated over and over
Forget Twitter, Australian Instagram (the Zuck) has dropped its gearbox in a major way.
Bruce of Newcastlesays:
April 23, 2023 at 10:07 am
Hope they were good swimmers. The British and Americans effectively controlled sea transport.
BJ – They’d be ordered to withdraw from combat. That would focus hearts and minds wonderfully at supreme Allied command level I assure you.
And they would have sat and watched as the Germans ran through Alamein to Cairo, Alexandria and the Suez Canal? The Bomber Offensive faltered? The Battle of the Atlantic suffered many more losses? Cut off their collective noses to spite their collective faces?
Drop the political crap. In war, the lesser allies (Australia was one such) do what they can and suffer what they must. Australia would have suffered Japanese troops in Darwin because we had no alternative. And the efficient MacArthur censorship machine would have painted it as a stunning strategic success.
Nah Bon. The waters of the Arafura and Timor seas are much less congested than those of the Solomon for instance, or even the Bismark, where Enterpise and Hornet were operating at the time (and both of those were surrounded by Japanese air bases).
Pray to holy Gaia, peasants.
Time Mag: ‘The Case For Making Earth Day a Religious Holiday’ – Urges ‘an earth-reverent belief system’ complete with ‘reverence’ & ‘hymns’ & ‘prophets’ (22 Apr)
Earth Day was of course yesterday. They’re actually serious. The level of crazy is really hitting an amazing height of silliness lately.
Nah, Cletus, I got it from a Sailer column @ Unz Review titled
Photographic Addendum to [Ann] Coulter’s Law.
Here’s a coupla pics of Trayvon Martin, the one the MSM went with, as a 12 year old and the one we weren’t shown.
Hilarious obituary for Humphries in the Paywallian. Worth a year’s subscription alone, before having a single Prof van Wrongselen comment rejected (again).
If Mr. 32% had any nous he’d go early.
The longer it rolls noislily down the road the more people will fall off the bandwagon.
Extinction Rebellion doing their bit to hasten extinction.
Our 18yo Trot has wedged himself. He’s finished as soon as the referendum results come in. Lucky he has a new family to spend time with.
According to Courier Mail a Coles in My Gravatt on Brisbane Southside no longer has the manned check outs and now all self service.
Seems there is also one in Melbourne.
Since there will be considerable labour cost savings I wonder if their prices will be cheaper than other stores.
Am all for efficiency but in this case I prefer they keep the jobs as if this spreads then going to affect tens of thousands of jobs.
Hopefully the locals shop elsewhere.
If Mr. 32% had any nous he’d go early.
The longer it rolls noislily down the road the more people will fall off the bandwagon.
There’s no bandwagon.
The only way it gets up [apart from AEC theft] is viewers get sick of the sight and sound of Jacinta Price and vote her off the island the first chance they get.
I’d say after the Footy Season, but before it gets too hot.
1988 Donald and Ivana Trump joined Dame Edna Everage
Wallabies are forced to wear a WHITE jersey in ‘woke’ World Rugby move that could see the famous All Blacks also made to abandon iconic brand for a white alternative
. Alternative strips introduced for inclusivity
. Colour blind rugby fans slam the policy
What a Dumb Move! – As a badly colour blind persom I can tell the difference – Woke gone Mad
And heretics.
Fun fact:
Time recently listed Evelyn Waugh as one of the 100 most read female authors.
Ed Casesays:
April 23, 2023 at 10:23 am
Nah, Cletus,
Grandpa Ed Simpson
I have told you before, there is only one Cletus the Illustrious, get your story lines straight.
Zatara – The USN high strategy was to go after Jap carriers. The Port Moresby invasion transports were a secondary target. (I’m basing this from the Aussie war history series 2 naval volumes, which have a detailed account of Coral Sea.) If there were no carriers in the Darwin area the US carrier would not be sent there – they’d remain in the east confronting the Japanese carriers. The Japanese didn’t need their carriers for the conquest of the Netherlands East Indies or Singapore. Transport and supply from Guam (for example) to Darwin would be entirely covered by land based air craft plus surface naval vessels in support. Recall from TE’s writing that Darwin harbour became a no go zone pretty much, and that’s just by air attacks out of Timor.
The Japanese had an absolute lock on the Netherlands East Indies sea space and with interior lines. We got hammered off Java at the time by both land based aircraft and JN vessels. And the war ended before we even made an attempt to recapture Timor and Java.
Time recently listed Evelyn Waugh as one of the 100 most read female authors.
Heh.
Joyce Kilmer one of the 100 most quoted female poets?
Scientists may have finally figured out why hair turns gray — and how to stop it
Not my problem, much to my Wife’s digust, as she went Grey at 30 and has to keep colouring her hair as does not want to be Grey alongside Dark Haired Husband
Still – Dark Hair, no Grey at 78
Anthony of the Underbite could either-
go early (it’ll have to be before Melbourne Cup Day) to minimise the bleedout, and then claim a mandate to Voice by the back door for the 45%, 35%, 25%, 99% of traditional community booths, whatever voted for it
or, go late- ie this time next year- to maximise the time freely spending taxpayer e-credits on the Yes case… and maximise the trotskyite targeting of his enemies, the beastly beastly conservatives.
Lose the referendum, win the war.
My favourites from WIP: