Rosie
Jul 28, 2023 7:39 AM

I had a rule, only travel to places with decent toilet facilities.

I think I’ll continue to stick to that.

Rosie,

avoid China – porcelin 2 feet imprints with a Hole in the Middle or steel rectangular Squat Toilets

At Shanghai Station waiting for Bullet Train to Beijing – only 2 wetstern type toilets – rest hole in the floor – big queue outside western toilet

Even if you’re staying in the big cities, though, every once in a while you’re going to encounter a squatty potty.

For this reason, it’s still good to know what to expect and how to use a squat toilet in China.

Soap dodgers rolled for 283.
The Carbon Footprints are 1/61

If the Strayans hadn’t soaked their hands in degreaser before taking the field they would have rolled the kipper aficionados for 183 or less.

Four catches, they spilled. Unforgivable at that level.

Perhaps their hands were cold as well. Maybe they would have benefited from a cheap source of reliable heat.

Rosie Avatar
Rosie
Jul 28, 2023 8:35 AM

NSW Premier Chris Minns refuses to confirm future of Sydney Metro West

Automated – No Train Drivers to Rip off NSW Travelling Public – No, No to Labor – No Union Members – hence has to to Go

And in more ‘sudden and baffling’ news, from the Oz:

But the joy of Caicedo’s World Cup bow was overshadowed by her collapse at Colombia’s training base on the outskirts of Sydney….Caicedo was running with the ball on a dribble when she suddenly stopped and began clutching the left side of her chest.

the story then speculates its a recurrence of her previous cancer … because thats known to return suddenly, with chest pain and collapse…

Heard some twerp on WSFM on the way home shrieking that the water temperature in the Caribbean had reached 37 degrees!

We’re all going to dieeeeeeeee!

On a quick Google, it appears that water temps there vary as little as 37 F. Average temperature is 27C, which is nice and balmy, given the currents. Via the Gulf Stream, it also keeps places like the UK from freezing over.

It’s good to be qwerty royalty.

Dylan Mulvaney Charging $40k in Speaking Fees on ‘Female Empowerment’ (26 Jul)

Female empowerment lectures from a man? LOL. Meanwhile at a previous gig…

Bud Light To Lay Off Hundreds Of Employees In Wake Of Disastrous Pro-Trans Marketing (28 Jul)

Maybe he should start identifying as a wrecking ball.

Lord save us from ageing commos

OPERA BUFFA IN UKRAINE
As the war drags on, delusions mount, with no end, or victory, in sight

SEYMOUR HERSH
27 JUL 2023

Let’s take a look at recent events in the Ukraine war from the point of view of those in the American intelligence community who don’t feel they have the ear of President Joe Biden but should.

On July 17 Ukraine attacked for a second time one of Russian President Vladimir’s proudest achievements: the 11.25-mile Kerch Bridge linking Crimea to Russia. The 3.7 billion dollar bridge, with separate spans for auto and train traffic, was opened for auto traffic in May of 2018 and for trucks five months later, with Putin himself driving the first one to make the crossing.

The official said there was a lot more than grain and sunflower seeds flowing into Europe from Odessa and other Black Sea ports: “Odessa’s exports included illegal stuff like drugs and the oil that Ukraine was getting from Russia.”

At this point, with the Ukraine counteroffensive against Russia thwarted, the official said,

“Zelensky has no plan, except to hang on. It’s as if he’s an orphan—a poor waif in his underwear—and we have no real idea of what Zelensky and his crowd are thinking.

Ukraine is the most corrupt and dumbest government in the world, outside of Nigeria, and Biden’s support of Zelensky can only come from Zelensky’s knowledge of Biden, and not just because he was taking care of Biden’s son.”

There are some in the American intelligence community, the official said, who worry about Putin’s response to the recent Ukrainian drone attacks in central Moscow. “Will Kiev be next?”

Subscriber Mailbag Answers – 7/27/23 [Part 2]

SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER
28 JUL 2023

Questions 20-33

30. – Though some skepticism is starting to find its way to the surface, they keep bringing up the F-16s. You’ve already described how these single-engine vacuum cleaners won’t be using country roads for airstrips and the Russians are unlikely to allow a NATO standard airbase to be maintained anywhere in Ukraine. Is there any scenario where Ukrainian pilots and ground support could use F-16s against the Russians in the east or is this just another attempt to get NATO more fully engaged in the fighting?

Many people don’t know that some Russian planes have special features like louvered intakes that allow them to take off on extra rugged runways without getting debris in their engines.

Mig-29:

The F-16 has that giant scoop intake on the bottom that is likely a magnet for debris from rough or ad hoc airfields.

There is a bit of a conundrum with operating NATO craft in Ukraine. You can take off from very distant airfields in the far west of Ukraine which may be more shielded against Russian strikes, in the sense that Russia may ignore them or, if they did choose to strike them with missiles, the planes can be easily scrambled out of harm’s way with advance warning.

But the trade off is the fact that Ukraine is a giant country, and flying from its farthest western point is not feasible because most combat aircraft don’t even have the base range to operate that far.

Here’s an example:

Note the distance from western Ukraine to Donbass: over 1,000 kilometers.

Now note the F-16’s range:

It’s a mere 500km+ with actual armaments attached. If it dumps all the armaments and takes on a huge amount of drop tanks, then it can go much farther.

But remember, the 1000km distance from west Ukraine to Donbass is actually 2000km you have to travel, because you have to get to the target then back to your home runway—1000km one way, then 1000km the other.

So, the trade off is, these planes have to operate from fairly close. If 500km is the F-16’s combat range with actual armaments, then remember, this means it can really only go 250km one way toward the target, as it needs the remainder of its fuel to get back home.

Here’s an example of what 250km looks like from Donbass:

It doesn’t get you very far at all. Now, keep in mind, there’s ways to fudge this slightly. For instance: if the F-16 is being used for a long range missile deployment missile, like shooting a Storm Shadow which itself has a 500km+ range, then that adds hundreds of kilometers to the F-16, as it doesn’t need to get that close to the target. Secondly, maybe they can rig something up to put some drop tanks on it but still allow it to carry a couple missiles, but extend its range a decent degree—I’m not 100% sure on that.

But recall, one of their actual stated purposes for getting the F-16 is to use it as an air-to-air platform to ‘take back the skies’, so to speak, from Russian air superiority fighters like Su-35s. That means the F-16 would in fact have to get fairly close to the frontline, which takes us back to the original point.

The problem appears untenable, and since air refueling is out of the question, to me, it doesn’t seem a realistic prospect to successfully use the F-16s at all. Keep in mind, platforms like the F-15 can have far more range than the F-16, so that would actually work from western Ukraine, but the F-15 is not in talks at all.

One clue came today, when new Russian strikes reportedly just targeted an airbase in Zhitomir which is said to house the Su-24Ms which have been firing the Storm Shadow missiles recently:

Following the military airfield in Zhitomir, an airbase in Starokostiantyniv, Khmelnitsky Oblast, has been targeted and hit.

The airplanes and ammunition stored in hangars have been destroyed. Secondary explosions are heard.

The Su-24 is listed as having a ~650km combat range, a bit more than the F-16.

The above shows 350km from the airfield in Zhitomir—this is arguably how far the Su-24M would be able to go before needing to turn back home with the remainder of its fuel. From that end point to, let’s say, Berdiansk is ~420km; to Crimea is ~350km. These are well within the Storm Shadow’s reported 550km+ range.

However, for missions of patrolling the skies or trying to shoot down Russian jets, that base may be too far, which means ultimately the F-16s can’t really add too much to Ukraine’s arsenal besides just a few more airframes to lob cruise missiles which by that time may be totally neutralized by updated Russian AD anyway.

Lastly, please scroll down to question #22 in this mailbag segment:

Paid Subscriber Weekly Mailbag Answers – 5/22/23 – [Part 2]

Without further ado, onto Part Deux!

Read full story

I did a much more detailed overview on this topic, including a whole report on Ukraine’s system of taking off from highways with footage and photos. One I’ll re-post is the following from Rybar’s report on the subject:

Read the full report in the link to see the exact coordinates and operating procedures for Ukraine’s ad hoc highway-runways, and how they’ve managed to elude Russian defenses by hiding their jets.

Lastly, allow me to mention one last thing. There’s been some talk made about the fact that the F-16s Ukraine would get would be the F-16D variant which comes with one of the latest and most powerful AN/APG-68 AESA radars, and this would allow the F-16 to outrange/outdetect and kill the Su-35.

Such people have no clue about radars. While not full AESA, the Su-35’s PESA radar, the Irbis-E, is legendary, and is arguably the most powerful radar in the world in pure peak power-aperture at 20 kilowatts. AESA can give you a few more tricks, like certain jamming resistance abilities, etc. But nothing can beat pure power generation, which allows you to detect objects at the farthest possible range. Which is why the F-16’s max detection range is under 300km while the Irbis-E of the Su-35 is 400km+.

In short, the F-16 would be food for the Su-35 at any range, particularly max BVR.

Their ABC doing Factchecking:

Familiar ‘third chamber’ claim resurfaces

First spruiked more than half a decade ago by leaders of the Coalition, an incorrect claim suggesting that the Voice to Parliament would constitute a third chamber of parliament remains pervasive in the lead-up to the referendum.

In a video shared online by digital media company ADH TV (which was launched by former Sky News and 2GB host Alan Jones in late 2021) commentator Damian Coory suggests that Australians are being asked “to vote yes to a special chamber with special access and rights of consideration and input over laws that affect everyone”.

OK, so is this claim “incorrect” then?
Roll the experts:

But as George Williams, a constitutional law expert at the University of New South Wales, told RMIT FactLab, there was no suggestion that the Voice would have any of the powers or responsibilities of the existing two chambers of Australia’s parliament.

“The Voice will not be a special chamber of Parliament,” Professor Williams said in an email. “In fact, it will not be a ‘special chamber’ at all.”

Rather, Professor Williams said, the Voice would be an advisory body of Indigenous Australians able to make representations on laws and policies to parliament and government, with the latter bodies still making decisions about laws and policies “as they see fit”.

“The Voice does not have a veto, nor any power akin to being a chamber of Parliament.”

Other constitutional law experts agree.

So, claim:

“a special chamber with special access and rights of consideration and input over laws that affect everyone“.

And rebuttal:

“advisory body of Indigenous Australians able to make representations on laws and policies to parliament and government“.

There was never any claim made that the Voice would have veto power, or the responsibilities of parliament – so, it appears the main argument is semantic, that the Voice would be a ‘body’ not a ‘chamber’. But the straw men remain standing.

‘VOTE NO’ pamphlet misleads on Voice, treaty and supposed GDP payments

The pamphlet, which claims to be quoting Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, suggests that once enshrined, the Voice would be in the constitution “forever”.

It also claims the success of the Voice referendum would force “Australians into Treaty”, under which a proportion of GDP, as well as rates, land tax and royalties, would be paid to the advisory body.

Pretty big stuff.
Strangely, I can’t find anything like that statement in the Vote No Pamphlet.
Probably unsurprisingly:

An unauthorised ‘Vote No’ pamphlet shared online ahead of the referendum has made numerous incorrect claims about the proposed Voice to Parliament, FactLab has found.

Not misinformation, or disinformation at all.

As CEO of Coutts it is right that I bear ultimate responsibility for this

‘Ultimate’ responsibility. A departing backhander to others. Translated:

‘I had to take the fall because I’m in the big chair. However, even though others were responsible to varying degrees, I had to take ultimate responsibility.’

JC spots an intruder into his sandpit and immediately goes on the offensive – lying about something I said five years ago by removing the context in which it was spoken.
At one stage, JC, you are going to have to grow up and learn to share the common space. It is not yours and you really need to get cracking on this ‘growing up’ shit because you’re not as young as you used to be.
Perhaps a psychiatrist would help – this dual personality you affect – the ‘Smooth Urbane Man About the World’ is in stark contrast to the ‘Manhattan Mouth’ who will attack anyone he thinks of as his social inferior, but only from the safety of his keyboard.

global boiling? is that like bunny boiling?
Truly, what will come next!

dover0beach Avatar
dover0beach
Jul 28, 2023 10:17 AM

Another bad day for UKR today.

Russia announces major airstrikes on key targets in Ukraine

A fresh cruise missile barrage has focused on important military infrastructure across the country

Moscow has launched fresh long-range strikes against Ukraine’s military infrastructure, targeting weaponry stockpiles, ammo and fuel depots, as well as several airfields, the Russian Defense Ministry announced in its daily briefing on Thursday.

Russian troops have repelled a major attack in the area, inflicting heavy losses on Ukrainian forces. According to the country’s military, Kiev’s troops lost more than 280 personnel, at least 25 tanks and ten infantry fighting vehicles during the battle.

Brown study

Neil Brown

Last week we looked at whether the proposed Voice will give rise to an avalanche of litigation and we argued that it will.

Don’t forget: if we vote for the Voice, with unlimited and as yet undisclosed powers, it’s there forever.

Another bad day for UKR today.

Dover – Without geolocation data and timestamp data that could be from anywhere and any time.

That’s not why I’m replying though. It turns out that Twitter oops X has had a new brain explosion!

I checked just now to see if the the various war feeds I had bookmarked were available again, since they were all behind a registration wall. I wanted to see if there was anything to corroborate your vid.

To my surprise the feeds were back! Sort of. Elon and his lady CEO have in their wisdom allowed us non-twits to access twitter feeds again, but get this: they’ve severely censored those feeds to show only random old tweets. They range from a month to a year old. I checked half a dozen feeds.

I read this to mean Twitter traffic has collapsed because of this registration wall, and they went into crisis mode. Good. Guys and gals, X going behind a wall is the very best way to kill your business.

I’ll be reading up on cholesterol flyingduk. I am 70 and this a first time on medication for it. Too old to be taking risks. I am still bitter about the Covid vaccine after effects.

American tanks to reach Ukraine in September – Politico

President Joe Biden had promised to donate battalion of Abrams vehicles to Kiev in January

The US hopes to deliver the first Abrams heavy tanks to Ukraine sometime in September so they could join the ongoing offensive, Politico reported on Thursday. The Pentagon had previously estimated their deployment “sometime in the fall.”

The 70-ton, gas turbine-powered Abrams was developed in the 1970s and first saw combat in the 1991 Gulf War. Since then, stripped-down export versions have been provided to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, and Australia.

From the Comments

– Why don’t they just torch the tanks now and save on shipping costs and humiliation?

– Powered by jet fuel that a caddy will have to carry while the tank is in action will make a wonderful fire works when blown up.

Robert Sewell
Jul 28, 2023 10:01 AM
Boambee John:

I doubt that the aborigines of Wadeye, Yuendumu, Hall’s Creek will have any control at all, though they are the ones most in need.

That’s because, John, they don’t matter.

Indeed. Only the pale, well remunerated, urban activists matter, so there will be no DNA or other rigorous testing.

It Starts!

Victoria bans new homes from connecting to gas

Gus McCubbing – Reporter

Victoria, which has the highest use of residential gas in Australia, will ban all new homes that require a planning permit from connecting to gas starting from next year, Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio has announced.

Ms D’Ambrosio, who lives in an all-electric home that relies on a combination of a split system, ducted electric heating and insulation to stay warm, said staying off gas could save Victorians up to $1000 a year, while the addition of solar panels could boost annual energy bill savings to $2200.

“But it is strange that Labor acknowledges gas is an expensive, polluting fossil fuel on the one hand, while on the other hand is changing the law to make it easier to open new mines and is approving new gas drilling across the state, including near the Twelve Apostles.”

nonpartisan Atlantic Council

OldOzzie – Nooo, the Atlantic Council are not nonpartisan. They are neocon lefties.

I’ve said for a couple months the Great Offensive™ is all about managing the sugar daddies. The UGS knew they didn’t have enough to seriously threaten the dug-in Russians, who’ve been building WW1-style trench lines 50-80 km behind the front for half a year now, especially on the approaches to Crimea. Unfortunately for the Ukies the White House kiddies are getting impatient for a breakthrough, so they’ve been pressuring Z. That’s the trouble with young lefties, they do not understand the real world. Both the UGS and RGS do, war is a great sorter of what is real from what is fake, and the activist kiddies running Biden wouldn’t know reality if it hit them in the face. Which it just might.

US Pressuring Ukraine For ‘Decisive Breakthrough’ & More Aggressive Tactics: WaPo (20 Jul)

Analysis

Bye bye bank fees as tech cuts out costly foreign exchange pain

Ultimately, cross-border payments on cheaper national platforms may take market share if regulators are satisfied the remitters and beneficiaries are appropriately identified to reduce money laundering risks.

Tom Richardson – Markets reporter and commentator

A future where travellers pay next to nothing to switch between currencies is on the horizon, as a fight for market share in fintech’s next disruptive frontier, promises to erase costly foreign exchange (FX) fees.

Just as big tech players in the messaging space like WhatsApp put paid to telecommunications companies’ revenue from charging for text messages and international calls, similar disruption is coming to the world’s largest financial market by daily cash volume.

Ultimately, cross-border payments on cheaper national platforms may take market share if regulators are satisfied the remitters and beneficiaries are appropriately identified to reduce money laundering risks.

Diverse challengers

This regulatory risk is also faced by the private sector’s fintech challengers, but there are still many reasons to be optimistic that FX fees will fall.

Despite the conflicted remuneration model, the remitters are cheaper than the banks. They also target retail and small business markets the banks have little interest in as the small volumes migrants send mean the fees don’t compensate big banks for the significant risks or costs around compliance, reputation, and money laundering.

Erasing the middleman

Elsewhere, proponents of peer-to-peer decentralised or blockchain or distributed ledger technologies (DLT) claim it can eliminate foreign exchange fees by cutting out all of these fee-charging middlemen.

Meta might have lost that one, but WhatsApp payments now let users in India, Brazil, and Singapore transfer money between friends and pay businesses. Don’t bet against WhatsApp coming back for international money transfers.

The war isn’t going well for Ukraine, sure.

The Russian copers seething about the F-16s is pretty predictable.

They’re arguably the most capable plane the US has ever deployed.

“We are in uncharted territory as far as humans on this planet are concerned, so our records are falling with increasing frequency and that’s exactly what we expect to – and what we’ve been predicting would – happen,” said Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe.

I also remember the hockey stick, proxy data and rounding up data.

I tend to believe most Ukrainians are bilingual. I’ve seen the old maps made in Russia pre WWI.

“Deadly heatwaves”

Uh-huh.

Just a reminder

Ms D’Ambrosio, who lives in an all-electric home that relies on a combination of a split system, ducted electric heating and insulation to stay warm…..

Like so many modern technologies, whilst they (may) be cleaner, more efficient etc, they dont actually do the same thing. The inside of a modern building might be heated to a comfortable temperature, but nothing beats the feeling of infra-red heat from a fire penetrating deep into your tissues … we evolved to sit around fires and derive health and social benefits from doing so. These benefits go far beyond what can be brought by electrically warming air and pumping it into a room.

More here:

https://youtu.be/5YV_iKnzDRg

Seth Borenstein

Climate royalty, like Bill McKibbon. Been at it for at least a decade and a half that I know of. Every time I see one of his pieces (which I often do on Phys.org) it is hilariously over the top.

It’s amazing how just a few names keep turning up on the climate reporting circle.

Dot:

That’d be nice, but “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” a phrase made popular by Carl Sagan who reworded Laplace’s principle, which says that “the weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness”

They’re both complete garbage.

You can do a damn sight better than that, Dot. Don’t become another JC who attacks contributors because his ego demands it.

Lies, lies and more lies.

Victoria bans gas in new homes to bring down soaring bills (Sky mainpage headline)

Victorians building new homes will no longer be able to connect to the state’s gas supply, with the measure expected to save residents hundreds on their annual power bills.

The Andrews government announced planning permits for all new homes and residential subdivisions will be expected to make the transition effective from January 1 2024.

Totally mendacious. Gas will cost a shedload more than electricity, not least because Dan has banned gas exploitation. I’m still waiting for my $275 saving from Albo btw.

There is a big advantage to making everybody be on electric power.

It can be turned off remotely. Mention has already been made of Qld Government controlling when EV’s can be charged at home.

Yes that’s why Bracksie brought in smart meters

Oops, got that wrong…I was doing a toasted sandwich and was under the gun timewise.

Should be electricity is a shedload more expensive than gas because electricity is produced FROM gas and Dan has banned gas exploitation.

On such things I’m amused that electric railways are now uneconomic.

Rail company grounds electric locomotives following rocketing electricity prices (27 Jul)

Back to steam locomotives powered by wood then. Or horses and carts.

What is actually covered by the Housing Australia Future Fund Bill?

Should be electricity is a shedload more expensive than gas because electricity is produced FROM gas and Dan has banned gas exploitation.

Well of course. The gas has to be reserved otherwise the electricity grid might fail during peak times now.