Open Thread – Weekend 27 Jan 2024


Path Leading Through Long Grass, Auguste Renoir, 1877

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Johnny Rotten
January 28, 2024 9:56 pm

If you don’t life Nazis then……………………..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTT1qUswYL0

Nelson_Kidd-Players
Nelson_Kidd-Players
January 28, 2024 9:57 pm

Tom
Jan 28, 2024 6:22 PM

BOWLED ‘IM!!!

WINDIES WIN!!!

So thoughtful of them to cave before all those precious chunks of coal had to be burnt to power those big angry lights!

Muddy
Muddy
January 28, 2024 9:58 pm

Random comment from a music reaction I’m watching on Youtube:

Tbh, I’m glad my ancestors were sold during the African slave trade. We even have a diary that showed my 5th great grandmother was happy as well, because of the horrors she left in Gambia. She met my 5th great grandfather after she was freed by the man who bought her. His wife taught her how to read and write in English, and she even stayed after being freed to work for them. A lot of people think every slave owner was bad then (less than 10% of the population owned slaves in the south btw), but my own ancestor contradicts that and said she was glad. GLAD. It turned my whole worldview upside down when my grandmother told me about her. I also wouldn’t want to be in most parts of Africa right now, and tbh my family probably would have died off. I’m glad to be in America and the tone of my skin means nothing to me. The problem is that too many people are proud of their skin color, and not their culture or ethnicity.

If cutting and pasting this comment doesn’t get me some towndicks tonight, I’m all out of ideas.

Rabz
January 28, 2024 10:00 pm

Cats, there’s nothing quite like a Trout Mask Replica:

Moonlight on Vermont by Cap’n Beefheart & his magick band …

Best enjoyed at 2:00am in a kitchen in Vaucluse, I recommends ya … 🙂

Muddy
Muddy
January 28, 2024 10:02 pm

Downticks, not, well…
Although in my condition, I can’t afford to be too fussy I guess.
[Insert winky-thingy here].

Rabz
January 28, 2024 10:08 pm
Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 28, 2024 10:13 pm

Johnny Rotten

Jan 28, 2024 9:26 PM

JC
Jan 28, 2024 9:20 PM

You fat arse short arse Mafioso pizza loving Melbum Sictorian Scum. LOL.

If Thought Leader was about I am sure he would remind you about bonhomie and good humour.
………………………………………………….. LOL!!!

Rabz
January 28, 2024 10:17 pm

Intergalactic … 😕

Nelson_Kidd-Players
Nelson_Kidd-Players
January 28, 2024 10:19 pm

Rabz Jan 28, 2024 8:50 PM

And yet, there was never a band (that I’m aware of) called “the Beagles“

Given the strong overlap of timelines in popular culture, I’d consider the answer to be obvious:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=00gXEn1ehDg

Muddy
Muddy
January 28, 2024 10:23 pm

Righto. No conversation to be had, so I’ll pop in my ‘Twenty Years of the World Extreme Knitting Championships (Uncensored)’ DVD and power down for the night.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 28, 2024 11:21 pm

Hmmm…was just getting “Error establishing database connection” for the last 30 minutes.

Tried loading the site on Chrome and Safari – same error on both.

Hamsters might need a feed.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 28, 2024 11:22 pm
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 28, 2024 11:27 pm

Tbh, I’m glad my ancestors were sold during the African slave trade. We even have a diary that showed my 5th great grandmother was happy as well, because of the horrors she left in Gambia

Quite some years ago, now, a certain A.B.C announcer was interviewing the matriarch of one of the more prominent Noongar clans.

“Before the white man came? I’d have been married off to one of the old men of the tribe, as soon as I was old enough. Ugh – some of those old men were HORRIBLE!
I’m GLAD the white man came..”

The interview ended forthwith.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 28, 2024 11:28 pm

Medical woe corner…
Had a chunk of nose taken off and a skin graft attached in its place.

Should it be black 4 days later?
No rotting smell so that’s good.
I think.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 28, 2024 11:29 pm

Hmmm…was just getting “Error establishing database connection” for the last 30 minutes.

Makes two of us.

Rabz
January 28, 2024 11:29 pm

Nelson* – I far prefer Miss Maggie and her Hollyweirdettes

*Thanks for the laugh, I loved Peanuts as a kiddie.

Rabz
January 28, 2024 11:36 pm
Rabz
January 28, 2024 11:38 pm

Mole – if they haven’t cut off your todger, all should be well, presumably …

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 28, 2024 11:40 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kob-H7a6AWY

You want English roses, Squire?

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
January 28, 2024 11:53 pm

Daily Mail is quite right calling them morons:

Blame their teachers. I’m not sure about morons, but they are certainly rather stupid and extremely ignorant. And their teachers have sedulously prevented them from finding out. Had they discovered it at an early age, they might have taken steps to reduce both their ignorance and stupidity. And learned to shut up in the presence of their intellectual superiors, almost everyone.
But they had their self-esteem bolstered instead.

Nelson_Kidd-Players
Nelson_Kidd-Players
January 28, 2024 11:56 pm

English?

Rose?

From my parents’ collection, so strangely nostalgic for me:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ieEnTEyA3lc

Rabz
January 28, 2024 11:57 pm

The Injun chick in the puce slip* – magnifique.

Cue Rog, grumbling about the twins not being accorded their rightful place, etc … 😕

*From 1:49

Muddy
Muddy
January 29, 2024 12:05 am

Congratulations, Mole. You now have a Nose of Colour.

Flippant comments aside, I have no idea how blood flow works in a nose. Good luck.

(I used to have a client whose nose was removed due to cancer. It’s interesting how central the olfactory organ is in regards to visual recognition and perception (including attractiveness).

A couple of decades ago, 60 Minutes Australia (when it was still vaguely watching), featured an Smerican woman whose car was smashed into by a drunk driver. She was initially trapped & severely burned, to the point of losing facial features such as ears, nose, lips & possibly eyelids. Her face without those recognised human features still haunts me.

Muddy
Muddy
January 29, 2024 12:10 am

watchable & American.

Fat fingers, tiny buttons. (Story of my life).
Back to the knitting.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 29, 2024 12:10 am

Australian Prime Minister booed after Jannik Sinner defeats Daniil Medvedev in the final

Australia Prime Minster Anthony Albanese was jeered by the Grand Slam crowd after Jannik Sinner’s win.

Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was roundly booed by the Australian Open crowd during the ceremony after Jannik Sinner dramatically defeated Daniil Medvedev. The Italian came from two sets down to claim a momentous victory, before Albanese was jeered.

Master of Ceremonies Todd Woodbridge read out a list of names of influential attendees the Major, including Albanese, though his name was the only one booed by the crowd.

Over 15,000 supporters were in attendance and created an awkward environment as Woodbridge was forced to pause his speech before handing over to Medvedev and Sinner.

An initial boo was raised when Albanese was mentioned by Woodbridge, before a chorus rained down and drowned out the ceremony’s host who waited to continue.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 29, 2024 12:15 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1ym4knCVrk&list=RDMM&index=5

Here’s a ditty as politically incorrect as it’s possible to be….

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 29, 2024 12:21 am

Tunnel vision of the terror that lies beneath

As rookie soldiers in Israel take their first tentative steps on to the battlefield in Gaza, they quickly learn three lessons. Yoni Bashan reports from inside Gaza, the first journalist from an Australian media outlet to do so since the October 7 attacks.
By yoni bashan
From World
1 hour ago
8 minute read
5

As rookie soldiers in Israel take their first tentative steps on to the battlefield in Gaza, there are three lessons they quickly absorb to survive the guerilla tactics of Hamas.

The first is to never chase anyone into a building – in all likelihood it’s a trap. The second is that the militants will almost never wear a uniform – instead they’ll wear hoodies and sweatpants to blend into the population.

And the third lesson is critical. Inside almost every school, every mosque, every second or third home is a shaft dug into a subterranean tunnel system so vast and meticulously constructed that it’s known to the world as the Gaza Underground.

“We paid a heavy price in the beginning, learning this,” says Lieutenant Colonel Anshel, the assistant chief of the 55th paratroopers brigade deployed in Khan Younis, the second-largest city in the territory.

In this uncertain terrain of close-quarter fighting and confusion, the battles in Gaza combine the tunnel warfare of the Vietcong, the dense urban settings of Fallujah, and enemies who deliberately disguise themselves as civilian non-combatants.

Now into the fourth month of its campaign, the Israel Defence Forces have already laid siege to the north of Gaza in November using armoured tanks and precision airstrikes, picking off battalion leaders to slowly degrade Hamas’s command and control structure.

Phase two of this effort has shifted forces to the south of the territory. The IDF is now deep in the prized region of Khan Younis, a hot-zone of terrorist activity where troops are advancing west on a hunt for Hamas’s chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, The Butcher of Khan Younis, and arguably the IDF’s most high-value target.

Here, too, thought to be hiding in the tunnels beneath the city is the commander of Hamas’s military wing, the elusive Mohammad Deif, known by that name ­because of a longstanding tendency to move locations for security purposes. Deif is a nom de guerre that roughly translates to “Mohammed the Guest”.

And like everywhere else in this strip of land, Khan Younis is densely packed with civilians, ­including tens of thousands who fled the north on Israel’s orders and are now huddled in humanitarian zones close to the Mediterranean.

On every measure, the IDF is the superior army with unmatchable firepower and technological capabilities. But in an unconventional war against an unconventional foe, Israeli soldiers have learned the hard way to adapt to Hamas’s brand of guerilla fighting, said Anshel.

Last month, on day three of his deployment, the brigade chief launched a surprise raid with his soldiers on a primary school in the middle of the night, clearing each room until the building was empty of every last militant who had been fortified inside.

But in the rush to secure the premises they missed a tunnel shaft secreted in the basement. A few hours later, as the first rays of morning light appeared, militants crept through the tunnel, climbed a set of stairs, and fired an rocket-propelled grenade at the unsuspecting Israeli forces.

“They surprised us,” he said. “We lost in the very first few seconds two soldiers plus 12 more ­injured.”

Three of the militants were killed in the brief gunbattle that ensued, while a fourth managed to escape back into the tunnel shaft. In the chaos and panic, a sniper caught a glimpse of Anshel through his scope, squeezing off a shot as the soldier stood guard in the building’s foyer.

“The trajectory was literally parallel to my arm, so it went in here and out in here,” he says, brandishing the flesh where the bullet hit. A grizzled veteran of multiple wars, he took a few days off to convalesce and shrugs his shoulders now about the incident. If anything, it was a wake-up call, and he was back in Khan Younis the following week.

It’s a 90-minute drive from Tel Aviv to the lush, rural staging point in southern Israel where The Australian meets Anshel, our guide for this embedded view of the conflict zone.

Around him are humvees scoring deep tracks in the mud, Jeeps mounted with recoilless rifles, and a dozen soldiers pulling on balaclavas and carrying guns tricked up with laser sights and optical ­attachments.

They’re standing by for insertion into Khan Younis, a few klicks west, and idling not far from the very border fence where terrorists crashed into Israel on October 7 and massacred 1200 members of the population, the majority of them civilians, an event that triggered a vow from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to eradicate Hamas as an entity.

Before the events of that day, Anshel – or “Anshi” as he’s known – was a 46-year-old father with a wife, two teenage daughters and an office job at an IT company.

These days he’s helping to lead 3000 men to secure supply lines and logistic routes for troops battling at the frontline, and aside from the few days of downtime when he caught that bullet in the forearm, he hasn’t seen much of that former life since.

Like almost everyone in Israel, he was roused early on the morning of October 7 by the wail of ­sirens and alerts that were blowing up his phone. Thousands of Qassam rockets fired from Gaza were beginning to overwhelm the Iron Dome defence system.

By that afternoon, the lieutenant colonel had been ordered with his unit to the kibbutz of Kfar Aza, the site of one of the worst mass killings that day, and where he fought with every other available soldier to take back the village.

That’s where they stayed for the rest of the week, carrying out the “challenging mission”, as he terms it, of pulling bodies from the wreckage – 66 people in total, all of them civilians. He spent the next two months reacquainting himself with his rifle, along with 300,000 reservists called up to fight, and 54 days ago he was trucked into Khan Younis for his first deployment.

The IDF routinely embeds ­reporters with its troops for the purpose of entering Gaza. To comply with the arrangement, The Australian agreed to provide all photographs and videos taken from inside the conflict zone to the military censor. No restrictions were imposed on any of the ­material, and the writing itself was not vetted in any form.

Strapped into the back of an open jeep, it’s a short ride over a muddy track that trails out of a ­banana field on the Israeli side through a tall metallic fence that demarcates the start of Gaza and the beginnings of the battle zone.

It’s a signal of how entrenched Israeli forces are in Khan Younis that, six weeks after they began circling the city, most of this journey takes place on a paved road laid down by IDF engineers.

On the way inside Khan Younis we pass what was once a wealthy neighbourhood, home to sprawling villas and enviable properties, but which has since been reduced by the war to a battered, filthy wasteland of rock, rubble and rubbish.

It’s here, inside an elementary school, where the IDF has established something akin to a supply depot for its soldiers, parking tanks in the school playground, stretching barbed wire at the entrance, setting up a line of portaloos and hanging Israeli flags from the upper level balconies.

Hamas militants had embedded themselves inside this school and the surrounding buildings, says Anshel, all of which were captured in the days-long operation that began on December 5, the day of his deployment.

“We go area by area,” he says. “We encircle it, we make sure all the civilians have left the area. We do our best to make sure that they know we’re coming. We fight ­between houses, we kill the terrorists, we get their infrastructure, their ammunition – we blow it up, and then move onto the next zone.”

It’s a simple formula that belies the complexity of doing business with Hamas. Typically, its militants appear for only a few seconds out in the open, firing potshots from tunnel entrances and then disappearing to safety. “Our challenge is targeting them in those few seconds when they pop out of the hole,” Anshel says.

In other cases, the challenge is figuring out whether the guy in the street clothing is a harmless civilian or a militant heading ­towards a hiding spot for an RPG or antitank missile that might be used for a sudden attack.

All over the territory, Hamas has been setting traps for the Israelis. It has recorded the cries of a baby and left it playing on a speaker in a booby-trapped apartment. There was a man seen by soldiers disappearing into a house while holding a knife to a woman’s neck, the premises later determined to have been comprehensively rigged with explosives.

Hamas rarely, if ever, concedes the loss of its militants in day-to-day battles with the IDF, and its health ministry often estimates civilian casualties to be in the order of 24,000 people.

But it’s a number that doesn’t distinguish between its fighters and the non-combatants caught in the crossfire.

For the IDF, the key to victory lies beneath the Gazan sandstone, in the elaborate tunnel system that’s turned the suburbs and cities, over the past decade, into one gigantic military stronghold.

There are three types of tunnels that soldiers encounter, distinguishable by their method of construction. Service tunnels are small, dusty affairs with sandy floors used by militants to shift ammunition and supplies.

Some are spacious numbers with marble flooring and decorative adornments, used exclusively by Hamas commanders, with shafts that rise directly into their homes. “That’s more kind of VIP style,” Anshel says.

The third type of tunnel is used solely for infiltrations into Israel, the exit to one of which was discovered only two weeks ago in a field a few hundred metres from the border fence.

Dozens of tunnel shafts just like it are found daily by the army, and while a hole in the ground might not seem like an obvious answer to succeeding in this war, shutting them off cuts a vital ­artery for Hamas to continue its guerilla fighting.

Is that what winning finally looks like? Anshel says there will never be a photographic moment of victory for the history books.

“There’s no Iwo Jima with flags going up,” he said. “Every 24 hours we dismantle another 50, 60, 70, 80 shafts, and blow up another two tunnels. You do the maths yourself – it takes time.”

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 29, 2024 12:25 am

“Useless man”- Australian Prime Minister brutally booed at the Australian Open as Jannik Sinner defeats Daniil Medvedev in the finals

Australian PM Anthony Albanese left red faced by the crowd during the trophy ceremony of the 2024 Australian Open finals won by Jannik Sinner.

By Sarthak Shitole
Updated January 28, 2024 / 13:13 GMT

As the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was announced in the list of dignitaries present, the crowd at Rod Laver Arena started a massive wave of booing.

The politician and tournament organizers were left red-faced as they were in no position to control the crowd. The presenter had no chance but to wait for the crowd to get silent before he could start speaking again and continue with the ceremony.

Lucia
@MyWildLove1

Love that our Prime Minister received an enormous prolonged “boo” from the crowd at Melbourne Park tonight!

Useless man!

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 29, 2024 12:27 am

Australian Open 2024: PM Anthony Albanese booed during presentation ceremony as Sinner clinches title (WATCH)

Amidst the jubilation of Jannik Sinner’s Australian Open 2024 triumph, the unexpected reaction towards Prime Minister Anthony Albanese highlights the underlying discontent simmering within the Australian community.

Jannik Sinner made history at the Australian Open 2024 Men’s singles final, orchestrating a stunning comeback against Daniil Medvedev to claim the coveted trophy with a 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 win on Sunday.

However, amidst the celebratory atmosphere of the ceremony, a peculiar moment unfolded as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was greeted with a chorus of boos from the stadium crowd—an unprecedented reaction that underscored a broader sentiment echoing across the nation.

However, amidst the jubilation of Sinner’s triumph, the unexpected reaction towards Prime Minister Anthony Albanese highlights the underlying discontent simmering within the Australian community. The resounding chorus of boos serves as a poignant reminder of the prevailing social and political tensions gripping the nation—a stark contrast to the euphoria witnessed on the tennis courts.

Dot
Dot
January 29, 2024 7:50 am

This childish, anti civilisational idiocy makes me committed to fossil fuels.

If there was a consequence to this boorish vandalism (of the goddamned Mona Lisa, mind you), it would stop.

It also makes me want a wood stove, wood fire BBQ, pizza oven etc.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 29, 2024 8:02 am

I would advise you, Lizzie, to stay out of this lest you want to reap the consequences.

Now there;s a good little girl. Go off and made your husband a nice cup of tea.

I am very careful about those from whom I am prepared to take advice, my dear.

You are not on that list.

Read up on Jane Austen and learn from an expert practitioner, for your jejune condescension needs some improving.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 29, 2024 8:13 am

Every 24 hours we dismantle another 50, 60, 70, 80 shafts, and blow up another two tunnels. You do the maths yourself – it takes time

I can understand why the Israelis are loathe to use poison gas in these tunnels but I think if these terrorists wish to locate within them then constant blasts of at least CO2 should be regularly used to foul the air and foul terrorist ambitions.

Chose to stay in tunnels and fight rather than above ground, take the consequences, in my book.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 29, 2024 8:32 am

The Oz’s version of the booing:

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been booed by a packed crowd at Rod Laver Arena during the trophy presentation after the Australian Open men’s final on Sunday night, forcing a halt to proceedings.

The PM was present in the 15,000-strong audience at Melbourne Park to see 22-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner recover from two sets down to claim his first grand slam title, beating Russian Daniil Medvedev 3-6 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-3.
But the crowd was in an uncharitable mood towards the country’s leader.

Master of ceremonies Todd Woodbridge was acknowledging the PM’s presence when tennis fans made their thoughts on Albanese loud and clear.

Woodbridge couldn’t get through the next names on his list of VIP attendees before being drowned out by boos.

The booing continued for Victoria’s Deputy Premier, Ben Carroll, and was sustained for long enough for Woodbridge to shush the crowd with a polite: “Thank you.”

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