Dry seeding here in the Wild West.
Open Thread – Weekend 3 Feb 2024
They want to make sure there is an efficient way to get us to the gulags.
Hermann Tertsch | The European Uniparty Versus the People | NatCon Brussels 2
Infrastructure projects under Dan were never about public good, they were always about the money flowing to the right people…
Woke Jesus
The West’s humiliating electric car climbdown has begun
Ambitious plans for an electrification-led industrial revolution are in full-scale retreat
MATTHEW LYNN
France’s President Macron had a plan to make millions of electric vehicles a year. Chancellor Scholz planned to put 15 million on Germany’s roads by 2030. President Biden trumped the lot with a $174bn (£138bn) plan to make the US the world leader. Even Boris Johnson – remember him – had a £1bn plan to beef up our charging network.
Rewind only a couple of years, and almost every president or prime minister was making electric vehicles the cornerstone of an industrial strategy.
And yet, this week we have learned that Renault is abandoning plans to separately list its electric vehicle (EV) and software business, while Volvo is winding down its Polestar electric sports car subsidiary.
In reality, amid an onslaught of Chinese competition, and falling sales, the West’s electric vehicle dream is quickly unravelling – and we need to relearn all the lessons in why grand, state-led industrial strategies never work.
It was not so long ago that countries were competing furiously to launch battery-powered visions of the future.
With Tesla riding the wave of green demand to become the world’s largest car manufacturer, measured by market value if not volume, and with ambitious net zero targets to meet, they all wanted to make sure they could compete in electric vehicles.
We would reduce carbon emissions, create many jobs, and shore up our industrial base.
Sure, governments would have to commit a few billions – or tens of billions – to make it happen.
But it would pay for itself many times over.
And yet, right now, plans for an EV-led industrial revolution are in full-scale retreat.
Renault, despite the programme of state support, has this week scrapped the separate listing of its EV unit Ampere, which has been scheduled for the first half of the year.
It was a “pragmatic decision” according to the company’s chief executive Luca de Meo, arguing that falling sales for EVs across Europe meant the market was more challenging than forecast.
Likewise, Volvo announced that it would stop funding its EV unit, Polestar, and might even offload its 48pc stake on other shareholders, including China’s Geely.
Last September, Volkswagen said it was cutting production of two of its flagship EV models, while in November, Ford said it was scaling back its battery plant in Michigan.
It looks like all those “well-paid green jobs” are going to take a little longer to arrive than anyone anticipated.
As for the payback on huge sums various governments have “invested” in the industry, it looks like the returns on that money will take a while to come through as well.
There is nothing wrong with EVs themselves. They are often great as run-arounds for dense urban environments, and as long as the raw materials are sourced correctly, and the chargers are not powered by coal-burning generators, they are probably a little better for the environment than the petrol version.
If people want them, then that’s great. The trouble with the industry right now is that demand is falling because the vehicles cost far more than anyone expected, and what market there is will be captured by Chinese manufacturers such as BYD that can make vehicles far more cheaply than anyone in the West can.
The result? A lot of government money will be wasted.
There is a lesson in the humiliating climbdown. State-led industrial strategies never work. Indeed, the failure of the drive into EV is a textbook example of everything that goes wrong.
First, it backs the wrong industries.
No one really has any idea what products people might want in five or ten years time, which is why it is best to leave it to private companies and their investors to make their own bets, reap the rewards when they get it right, and bear the losses when they don’t.
Politicians and bureaucrats are no better at making those decisions, as usually a lot worse.
Don’t believe me? Just ask consumers.
Hertz in the US is disposing of the 20,000 EVs it bought with great fanfare in recent years, and is replacing them with petrol models, due to lack of demand.
Over the past year, figures from the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders revealed a steep fall in EV interest from private buyers.
Next, the state over-invests.
Even if there is a small market for EVs, there certainly wasn’t space for huge new industries in France, Germany, the US, or in a dozen smaller countries.
The car industry was awash with over-capacity already, and that was before the Government started throwing billions at electric vehicle plants.
All that happens is that prices collapse, and no one makes any money.
Finally, it distorts the market with subsidies.
Governments start out spending a few billion on new EV factories, then they have to start subsidising the EVs so that people actually buy them, then they have to impose tariffs and quotas to stop imports from countries where other government have invested too much.
Finally, they have to pay out even more to keep alive the factories making a product that no one wants.
It’s a vicious cycle, and once it starts it is very hard to stop.
The one relief for the UK is that our political and administrative class was too inept to pour even more money in, despite the best efforts of the former PM’s Theresa May and Boris Johnson to splurge a few tens of billions into the “race for EVs” and the endless warnings that we risked “getting left behind’”.
We will be spared the worst of the pain ahead.
In reality, the volte-face on the electrification of the auto industry is underway.
Major manufacturers have started to pull back, but all the grand projects for battery factories, for shiny new EV plants, and for charging infrastructure, will inevitably be scrapped very soon.
Billions of taxpayer’s money will have been wasted.
We should draw the lesson from that, as bitter as it might prove.
The Government never knows what the industries of the future will be – and should leave it to entrepreneurs and customers to work that out.
Wayne Kramer (MC5 ) also brown bread.
Not here. We are blessed with rat faced grubs intent on destroying the nation. Dutton is too gutless to stand up against this treacherous act of national destruction.
Rockdoctor, when you visit Seymour be sure to visit the Munty Shrine. Apparently that’s where he grew up but we know for a fact he never grew up, just out.
I had a look at his wiki earlier, a very talented and gifted man. I liked Happy Gilmour and Predator best.
ADF to train eagles as counter measure for killer-drones
Does that mean they will have to do the annual equity and diversity training? And the fraud awareness, anti-bullying, and alcohol and drug program?
I imagine they will get an RPL for the weapons test though.
I am in the process of letting a contract on the life of my long term and until recently, dearly loved wife.
She was engaged in a thoroughly approved exercise of baking a fruitcake. Having discovered that we were out of rum for the cake she casusally opened my long preserved bottle of Meukow cognac and proceeded to pour that into the cake.
It’s over. She’s toast!
Old Ozzie:
These people lie.
They will lie even if they don’t have to – they take in treachery with their mothers milk – how long before before our administrators stop being so naive? Or do they think they will be the last to be eaten when the Jihadi Crocodile comes knocking?
Sacrilege! I love that stuff, even went to the distillery in Cognac for a gander.
Try the vanilla one. Ambrosia.
Certainly a cake recipe to die for. Yum!
The Creature from the Black Lagoon opened a bottle of 16 year old single malt, and served it to her girlfriends…with Coke…
OldOzzie
Feb 3, 2024 12:40 AM
Fine. China will supply ‘training and equipment + advisors’ for free.
Yes, but our rum of choice was Frigate. We ran out of Frigate on my IET, in July, on top the escarpment at Bulli/Appin , and we had been soaked to the skin for 4 days and Bundy was the only rum the CQMS could find.
We also used rum prophylacticly for snake bite. Must have have worked , never been bitten
Bundaberg Rum is basically the an alco-pop product – high sugar with a cheap alcohol hit – except the target market is 40-ish males with an inferiority complex rather than teenage girls.
Lanyon – Peter Principle perfect.
He knows he’s talking bullshit – just look at his face.
Just too dumb to disguise it.
She (they?) feels she’s the message the Democrats aren’t getting across? Hooh boy if this is the characteristic Democrat standard-bearer, Trump is going to romp it in.*
Any normal person would slam the door on this individual trying to give them ‘the message’ (imagine what she would be babbling on about, geez).
*assuming he isn’t taken out one way or another – all ways are very much live possibilities, unfortunately
Interesting place Calli. A miniature Paris town centre and distilleries everywhere. Some strange folks though.
A contact took me to the distillery that produces the cognac that is used for official state gifts. It was a Dickensian scene. An ancient fellow and his son who looked like a lead in a horror movie. Six pot stills in a shed with partially collapsed walls, spiderwebs everywhere and penicillin fungus dangling from beams.
It was all because of the needs of the spirit we were assured. I enjoyed the taste and the bottle that I took away but I did check myself for scaly creatures when I left.
annual equity and diversity training
They sneaked out some footage from the first batch.
They are fabulous
Latest guest on Patrick Beth David podcast is Brigitte Gabriel.
Very interesting listening to her talking about growing up as a Lebanese Christian (Maronite) in South Lebanon in late 70’s / early 80’s and how the country changed due to influx of Palestinians. Also her experiences with Israelis which have made her such a strong supporter. Went from regular trips to Beirut to none as might be stopped at a roadblock and killed.
She is a lady you would want on your side.
mole,
your link isn’t working.
Try again… new link
annual equity and diversity training
They sneaked out some footage from the first batch.
They are fabulous
mole,
hehehehe, snork.
Maybe Harry made her feeeeel like a virgin.
Serious question. Do operas sung by native speakers sound different than those sung by those who have jusr learned the language?
Whining about a fourteen minute sermon?
We used to sit through bum numbing forty minute, Moore College three pointers. Fortitude.
Although content will always trump long-windedness or brevity. That weird wedding sermon was just bizarre, more suited to Harlem than Westminster.
…..the impassioned outpourings of the American Archbishop Michael Curry
Oh I remember that. It seemed interminable. Would this man never stop?! My guess at the time was that this was his 5 minutes of fame which he was determined to ring out for as long as possible. 14 minutes? It felt like a lot longer.
I don’t expect a serious answer but help yourselves.
I wonder what the slur was. Given the convoluted doctrine and histrionic demeanour of those feted by progressives I doubt it needed to be a slur at all. Like Greta with her ‘CO2 vision’ a true SJW can find racism where none is visible to anyone else: If someone gives me a blank piece of paper I just see a white page. An SJW of the racism flavour looks at the same paper but sees upon it – it burns blindingly off the page “Die Nigga! This is MAGA Stationery!” – written in white on a white background.
Add to this a conviction that knits every fibre of her being together that everything she thinks and feels is steeped in significance.
A ghastly creature that sees herself one of the first of a new type of human that will eventually outcompete, in evolutionary terms, the old through higher developed faculties to navigate the natural world’s topography of genders, racism, colonialism etc.
No.
Bundaberg Rum has been around forever, is the preeminent rum in Australia, is consumed by all & sundry at all manner of social occasions.
This may not be apparent from the other side of the mountain range known as the “Bundy Rum Divide” (also known variously as the “Caesar salad divide” the “Sauv Blanc divide” the “Bunnings divide” the “franchise divide” etc.
Bundaberg Rum is:
1/. Pommy owned & has been for 30 years or more.
2/. Not recognised by rum distillers around the world as the process used does not match their parameters for how rum is made.
3/. Has a flavour very close to that of kerosine & should be drank only by people who have a callous disregard for the health of their gizzard.
Yet states with a high proportion of immigrants are gradually turning republican.
You got that, Sanchez. The rural sophisticate says, “no”, and no it is then.
Well it actually is. I read some time ago about using raptors for aerial drone interception. So how does the wedgee figure out which one is friend or foe? and how does wedgee deal with a swarm?
Quenthland (and possibly Bundy-inspired) news (the Courier-Mail);
And heere we go:
And:
And also:
Additionally:
The postmix in those Dark ‘N’ Stormy cans must be really something.
As told before, my beloved was making a Tiramasu for her Book Club. She looked in the grog cupboard for ingredients and noticed a square-shouldered bottle at the back that she didn’t recognise.
She elected to use that knowing I treasured my Glenfiddich, which was always a special gift not bought by me.
It was a Limeburners, my 60th birthday present from our best man.
I confess that I laughed in total incredulity when I told her what she had wasted. Since she found out in time to tell the story as she served it, the whisky lovers at her book club were very appreciative.
Comes from the diary of the daughter of the current US President.
Speaking of virgins:
The prissie poodle was pimped out by his hairdresser to innocent white fluffball, Princess Polly. They had their first date this morning; a meet and greet to see whether they might be compatible to mate further down the track.
Five minutes after saying hello, the poodle jumped on her and then it was on, as the boys say, like Donkey Kong. Four shocked adults tried not to gasp at their fur babies’ shenanigans. Hasty negotions re stud fees followed, then Princes Polly departed with her bemused parents while poodle settled back with a Winnie Blue.
Never a dull moment around this place.
@elonmusk
Biden’s strategy is very simple:
1. Get as many illegals in the country as possible.
2. Legalize them to create a permanent majority – a one-party state.
That is why they are encouraging so much illegal immigration. Simple, yet effective.
The Republicans need a way to counter those illegal immigrant numbers. 30.06 is an effective response… there are other numbers that would be equally effective.
What’s 30.06?
The Texas response is an option. Ship out all illegals to sanctuary cities and lay on the razor wire. Then elect Trump.
30.06 cartridge.
What’s 30.06?
The rule for dealing with corrupt enemies of the Constitution, foreign or domestic.
See Breaker Morant, Rule 303.
The 3 greatest mysteries facing the world today are:
1 Is Trudeau Castro’s sprog
2 Is Hazza Chuck’s sprog
3 Is Michelle a bloke
What’s one less 30.06 to a redneck?
4 Is Biden dead
Falconry is an ancient art that makes training horses or dogs look easy.
The aspiring hunter will put in almost as much work as maintaining Meghan Markle, and get as much reward. The emotional investment of the digger with his bird will be very high.
So on Australia Day we saw before the fireworks, an aerial display that I estimated used over 500 drones. Military users will employ swarms of the stupid things; the sizes will range from lunchboxes to horseboxes. How on earth could we field hundreds of delicately-reared birds, each one with a delicately-reared digger mind-melded to it, and expect the attacked drones not to have a grenade that would wipe out years of work in each bird?
It cannot be more than a very partial solution aimed at small terrorist or activist scaled attacks, and Oct 7 shows we have to think bigger than we have so far.
Rule .303 was applied to what the Boers contemptuously called “Handsoppers” – they were obeying British injunctions to surrender themselves, place themselves under the jurisdiction of the nearest British Provost Marshall, take the oath of allegiance to the Queen, go home and take no further part in the fighting.
As a descendant of one of those Boers asked the author of one apology for the “Breaker”, “How many unarmed men do you have to shoot to be considered a war criminal?”
The problem with deporting all the illegals (that they can find) who have poured into the US is knowing where to deport them to.
They are undocumented, and they will not help. You could not believe a word they say. Then there is whether the countries they are (or claim to be) from want them back. Certainly the criminals will be disowned.
Not sure you can unscramble the omelette.
Oof.
You just know this stupid, stupid idea came straight from a butchers’ paper and whiteboard marker management seminar where people are encouraged to think outside the box in response to ‘wicked problems’.
‘Hey, let’s get three eagles, spend five years training them and then send them up against 4,000 drones.’
…
‘Promote that man!’
Don’t be pretentious f’wits.
After a late afternoon and evening of fishing (mid-strength beer changes available each bait change), and heavies while cleaning, there is nothing. NOTHING. better to have a warm shower and enjoy a bundy and coke while playing cards.
Bridge for people with more than half a brain; poker or four-handed 500 for you drop kicks who seem to think enjoyment needs some sort of wanker-approval.
Wedgie Drone Bots.
Secret training grounds are being assessed.
Defence Force sources say the birds aren’t well suited to operating in areas benefitting from the transition to renewable energy.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen was unavailable for comment but is scheduled to initiate Twiggy Forrest into the ‘Low Cost Energy Lodge’ and is reportedly regaled in a Wedge-tail Eagle feather headdress inducting Twiggy through the traditional ‘Palm Greasing’ ceremony.
Apologies if this has been posted before.
Remember the mountains of abandoned rideshare bikes? Meet the Fields of BYDreams
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_rwg9hqtzvV1zlxqpx.mp4
As a wise man once said about official Chinese figures, if they’re bad double them, if they’re good halve them.
Further on Eagles Winning the War:
In WW2, the Soviets on the Eastern Front had an idea. They would train dogs to fight ze Chermans.
What they did was train the dogs to head straight underneath tanks and trucks, because that’s where they put food during said training process. Then they strapped explosives to the dogs. Detonation would occur when a vertical stick attached to the dog’s back was bent over when the dog went under the tank.
Kaboom. Brilliant.
What actually happened was when the trained-up, strapped-up dogs were released en masse during an attack, they ran straight under the Russians’ own tanks, trucks and what-have-you.
Multiple KaBLAMMOs ensued. End of idea.
It’s a rifle calibre.
Hey KD, you didn’t tell us what the weirdo was sentenced to?
Or wasn’t he?
Pretentious? Moi?
h/t Sybil Fawlty
Well they’re all commies, if that helps.
Him too.
In the race between current immigrants waking up and becoming Republicans and new invaders crossing the border for lots of lurvely munni, the latter will win, at least in the short term.
I remember one explanation as being German tanks and trucks ran on petrol, Soviet tanks and trucks ran on diesel, and the dogs headed for the vehicles emitting the same fumes they were used to.
The US equivalent of .303 or 7,62mm.
John you don’t need my approval to enjoy a Bundy and coke.
I wasn’t myself man enough to keep drinking when I had a bottle. I will incredulously applaud your efforts!
Far Kurnell!
Yes.
The Soviet Union with American characteristics — as in capitalism with Chinese characteristics.
The only thing non-negotiable is that the Democratic Party is in charge and the Republican Party is illegal.
Zulu
Would that have been ex-Commander Unkles?
Got a feeling the anti drone eagles might be good for one go.
“Damn, that thing bites and it doesn’t even taste good. Rabbits are better”
Shit. My bad – an integral part of the story, I would think. From the link:
Predictable.
JB you missed the game of “snap” for the bundy and coke aka draino, drinkers
Better to have FPV (first person view) drones as anti drone defences.
Hamas as Reivers? Maybe the name of the outlaws in that movie, who did dreadful things, but a disservice to the reiver clans of what were called The Debatable Lands, neither of Scotland or England, from times long gone, mainly known now from their 16th and 17th century iterations.
My granddad came from a well known reiver clan – in the matriline – a Dixon.
In the patriline he had a Danish name – Sanderson. All from Appleby in Westmorland by his day, but proud of his Scottish reiver ancestry. Reivers were not all bad, nor completely lawless. They had rules and codes.
Sancho Panzer
Feb 3, 2024 1:02 PM
Bundaberg Rum is basically the an alco-pop product – high sugar with a cheap alcohol hit – except the target market is 40-ish males with an inferiority complex rather than teenage girls.
Sancho,
Interesting to know my Demographic – Could be I just like Bundy & Coke and yes I have been to Valhalla – The Bundy Factory
Re my posting yesterday from a Mate
Don’t know why I am sending this out
“To get back to my youth I would do anything in the world, except exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”
Oscar Wilde
“The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.”
Will Rogers
“We must recognize that, as we grow older, we become like old cars – more and more repairs and replacements are necessary.”
C.S. Lewis
https://bard.google.com/ Psychoanalysis
It’s interesting that you chose to send this list of quotes about aging. Is there anything specific about them that resonated with you, or were you just wanting to share them?
The quotes offer a wide range of perspectives on aging, from humorous observations to more philosophical reflections. Some are lighthearted and playful, while others touch on the realities of physical decline and mortality.
Perhaps you found yourself connecting with a particular quote or theme? Maybe you’re thinking about your own aging process or that of someone close to you? Or maybe you just appreciate the wit and wisdom of these reflections on life and time.
bard’s review of your comments
I understand your perspective on Bundaberg Rum, but it’s important to be mindful of potentially harmful stereotypes and generalizations when making such statements.
Here’s why your statement might be considered inaccurate or offensive:
1. Generalization: Attributing an “inferiority complex” to an entire demographic, especially based solely on their beverage preference, is harmful and inaccurate. Judging individuals based on group stereotypes can be unfair and harmful to individuals who don’t conform to those stereotypes.
2. Ageism: Targeting a specific age group, like “40-ish males,” with negative connotations can be seen as ageist. People’s preferences and motivations for enjoying certain products can vary greatly within any age group.
3. Dismissive language: Labeling Bundaberg Rum as purely an “alco-pop product” ignores the complexity of the beverage and its potential appeal to diverse consumers. The rum has a long history and loyal following, and its taste profile caters to various preferences.
It’s crucial to remember that marketing strategies and consumer preferences are multifaceted.
While Bundaberg Rum might not target teenagers the same way certain alco-pop brands do, its appeal goes beyond simply fulfilling an “inferiority complex.”
Furthermore, it’s important to be respectful of diverse groups of people and avoid making harmful generalizations based on age, gender, or any other demographic characteristics.
PS as another blogger said above – the discussion is all a great pisstake!
Being government you just know they will build the new “eagles nest” training facility in the middle of a wind farm.
It’s the eagles I’m worried about. These magnificent birds deserve better.
Wind factories already do them untold damage.
Unkles was present, yes, but the question was addressed to one Nick Bleszynski – they had gone to the Transvaal to argue the case for a pardon, and a couple of South African historians had organized for them to meet some of said descendants of the murdered Boers. Not surprisingly, the South Africans have a different perspective on the whole matter…..
“Smart” submunitions are about the only way to deal with drones.
Another military race, per various levels of anti-missiles and electronic countermeasures.
Got the factory tour of the Bundy Rum facility once. At one point they have a 70% ethanol/30% water mix. Add some water to make it 60% ethanol/40% water and you have the fuel for the V2 rocket.
One Mr Wesley Witton was the handyman at my High School. The Witton family had a certain perspective on the whole matter also.
Dot
It just won’t die.
And.
It put on US$83 billion in a day. That’s almost real money.
These people lie.
They will lie even if they don’t have to – they take in treachery with their mothers milk – how long before before our administrators stop being so naive? Or do they think they will be the last to be eaten when the Jihadi Crocodile comes knocking?
They don’t see it as a lie. It is Allah’s truth. Hence it is The Truth.
Our bureaucrats and academics will simply convert. Their whole life is a compromise, this is just one more.
NIALL FERGUSON: Biden’s fear of Putin and appeasement of Iran is making World War III more, not less, likely. We have perhaps 12 months to grasp the big lesson of history: If you do not prepare for war you shall not have peace
‘We are paying very heavily now for failing to face the insurance premiums essential for security of an Empire! This has usually been the main cause for the loss of Empires in the past.’
That was a diary entry written in February 1942 by General Sir Alan Brooke, the chief of the Imperial General Staff, whose steady pair of hands steered Britain to victory in World War II.
We no longer have an empire, only a nation state — the United Kingdom. But nation states, as much as empires, must take out insurance if they are to avoid the kind of strategic disaster that befell Britain in early 1942, when Singapore surrendered to Japan and multiple British possessions around the world — not to mention the British Isles themselves — were threatened by the Axis powers.
From the Comments
– Ferguson always gets his anti-Trump bit in early, just to show the swampers that, although he’s being a wee bit edgy, he’s still firmly part of the establishment.
The (German) Reverend Heese is the problem for me.
The only conclusion I believe with any certainty is Britain got the outcome it wanted to avoid a war with Germany who was its rival but still an ally at that point.
What’s one less 30.06 to a Redneck?
Heese was actually a British citizen – he had been born in the Cape Colony.
will
Feb 3, 2024 2:17 PM
“This isn’t a joke – this looks like the real plan the army has to deal with drones,” Mr Shoebridge told Sky News Australia
Well it actually is. I read some time ago about using raptors for aerial drone interception. So how does the wedgee figure out which one is friend or foe? and how does wedgee deal with a swarm?
This could get all L.O.T.R. I’m envisioning eagles vs Nazghul.
US analysts are blaming Boeing’s problems as being similar to other manufacturers having issues after COVID. Ramp up production from zero to 11 as demand for new planes took off like a head of steam.
Shortages of everything, everywhere you look.
Leadership challenges, FAA oversight, and constrained production make Boeing stock dead money, at least for now. With so much uncertainty—and a struggling military business, as well—it’s hard to picture analysts at an investment fund walking into a portfolio manager’s office and pitching Boeing as a turnaround story. Those analysts are as likely to have something thrown at them as they are to be rewarded for their boldness. No portfolio manager likes to be early in a situation like Boeing. Eventually, stocks in Boeing’s situation lose their acute toxicity and become investible again. Figuring out when isn’t easy. “Usually, it is just price,” says Gary Black, co-founder of the Future Fund. When things get cheap enough, contrarian investors, willing to take a reputational risk, start looking.
We suspect that price will be near $175 for portfolio managers. But until real change is visible, expect Boeing stock to remain stuck on the runway, waiting for clearance to take off.
Some variation of controlled EMP is the most likely counter to airborne drones as they are too light to be armoured against it.
Whoops
Screwed up the quotes.
It’s all bullshit. FaceBook was criticised a decade ago for having a fraudulent advertising system for advertisers that punished them for actually using it.
How secure is their revenue if a big Red state like Texas or Florida starts looking into fraud?
If they screw up in any way (which I doubt because it was started by spooks, is infested with spooks and probably gets most of its revenue from spooks) it will have its “social licence” revoked and it will be audited and put through discovery like Trump but on steroids.
Let’s see how much of the 1.288 bn USD of dividends they actually pay out – keep in mind Fucherberg owns 59% of the shares. How does the buy back work for him?
Until FaceBook shows the public its bankbook with all of the debits and credits, it’s just grossly inflated EBITDA bullshit. If their R&D department is using actual market rates and prices, I’ll eat my hat.
Quite frankly I can’t wait for Reddit to IPO, because it will die.
Musk turned around Twitter, but he probably didn’t care if he lost some money.
I’ve seen industry meat fluffers try to say 20 million Meta VR headsets have been sold (post Occulus). Really? How many VR games are there? Have you seen the Metaverse? It’s a joke. If you have REALLY spent that much money on it, the chances of it being any good is a joke.
I don’t know anyone who owns a Meta VR set. Let alone anyone with a VR set. I know some Otakus and heavy duty gamers.
“20 million units” likely more Fucherberg fraud. The reptoid has a “goal” of “1 billion people in VR”.
Chris
Feb 3, 2024 2:49 PM
Falconry is an ancient art that makes training horses or dogs look easy.
The aspiring hunter will put in almost as much work as maintaining Meghan Markle, and get as much reward. The emotional investment of the digger with his bird will be very high.
So on Australia Day we saw before the fireworks, an aerial display that I estimated used over 500 drones. Military users will employ swarms of the stupid things; the sizes will range from lunchboxes to horseboxes. How on earth could we field hundreds of delicately-reared birds, each one with a delicately-reared digger mind-melded to it, and expect the attacked drones not to have a grenade that would wipe out years of work in each bird?
It cannot be more than a very partial solution aimed at small terrorist or activist scaled attacks, and Oct 7 shows we have to think bigger than we have so far.
Fight fire with fire. Swarms of suicide Mynahs, each with a small charge strapped to them (maybe a proximity charge).
I like eagles. I don’t want them to die. It would be poetic on ANZAC day if one had a bash at Albo and Co.
Thank you for pointing this out, but given his parentage and education, it’s not a stretch to say they were Krauts. However, the German government had no interest in the matter.
If 20 million units of the latest generation Meta VR headsets have been sold (even over 3 years), then “97% of revenue from advertising” has to be a lie considering how they sell or sell the right to user data. They sell retail in Australia for 1700+ AUD for the top model and no extras. Retail markup is likely less than 30%.
People just tolerate this because FB at one stage was cool and they get to stalk people online legitimately.
…a British subject, rather – British citizenship didn’t legally come about until 1981.
I only mention it because it becomes quite an important distinction in the unravelling of empire and early mass emigration to the UK in the 20th C.
The Chinese economy is rooted and if it really gets bad, the Aussie could end up in the low 50s this year and possibly lower depending how bad it gets there.
People reckoned the Chinese economy will hit peak in 2030 because of the demographics , but I suspect we’ve already seen its better days.
Real estate problems mixed in with debt and government receipts relying on the sector take a really long time to clear.
/Barron’s
My introduction to Bundy was early but not terribly positive.
At boarding school I had a weekend job working as a roustabout in a warehouse, much to my Mum’s horror. Most of the storemen were ex-WWII blokes whose conversation in the cribb room was straight up Storemen and Packers revolutionary marxism.
That didn’t impress me, but what did was that many of them had a ‘coffee bottle’ of Bundy in their lunch bags. The foreman soon banned me from the cribb room.
I had a reminder recently when I saw a display cabinet of ‘coffee bottles’ at the distillery museum. Apparently they were top sellers for labourers, stockmen, (country cops?), etc. They must have been tough buggers. Sipping rum on a 40 degree day riding the fences would take some practice.
I normally HATE Quora, but this is worth it.
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-DARPA-cancel-LifeLog-on-the-same-day-Facebook-was-launched
Don Romeo
Conscript, Hellenic ArmyAuthor has 205 answers and 155.4K answer views1y
There is no doubt for an intelligent, rationality-based person that Facebook is probably the largest part of the LifeLog system.
Before getting into detail, consider this: The US Defense Department will arrest you, a private citizen, if you find a prime number – a string of digits from 1 to 9 – that is long enough to be of interest, and you dont report it to them. That is now a crime, and they will imprison you for posessing that mere string of digits. In contrast, Facebook is the worlds most powerful-ever intelligence network. No one in America out-spies the NSA, but Facebook does. Its quite hard to see how Facebook, apparently run by a couple of college nerds, would be able to run a competitor to the US intelligence community, on US soil, without them coming in and taking over. In fact, the notion of Mark Zuckerberg physically fighting off a stream of soldiers and special agents to maintain Facebooks autonomy is quite frankly ridiculous. There is no way – literally, I mean NONE – that the Pentagon would allow an independent company to not give them full access and control of a US military asset of such enormity – when they will punish the mere finding of a prime number. Some things are absolutely impossible, without a single, most infintessimal possibility of being true – and Facebook running the worlds largest ever spy network in California without being taken over by the Pentagon, is one of those things. Hopefully anyone who believes that this could ever be possible has now been quietly and unembarrassingly corrected, and can now pretend that they would never be so ignorant as to harbour such a fantastical delusion.
So now lets start with the detail.
After 9/11 (as all recent major problems originate) DARPA, in close collaboration with the US intelligence community (specifically the CIA), began developing a “precrime” approach to combatting terrorism known as Total Information Awareness or TIA. The purpose of TIA was to develop an “all-seeing” military-surveillance apparatus. The official excuse behind TIA was that invasive surveillance of the entire US population was necessary to prevent ‘terrorist attacks’ and disease outbreaks. The leader and designer was John Poindexter, previously Ronald Reagan’s national security advisor. The TIA program met with considerable citizen outrage after it was revealed to the public in early 2003. The American Civil Liberties Union claimed that the surveillance effort would “kill privacy in America” because “every aspect of our lives would be catalogued,” while several mainstream media outlets warned that TIA was “fighting terror by terrifying US citizens.” As a result of the pressure, DARPA changed the program’s name to Terrorist Information Awareness.
After considerable controversy and criticism, in late 2003, TIA was shut down and defunded by Congress, just months after it was launched. It was only later revealed that that TIA was never actually shut down, with its various programs having been covertly divided up among the web of military and intelligence agencies that make up the US national-security state. Some of it was privatized. So DARPA just moved these to classified portfolios of the Pentagon and US Intelligence Community, out of sight.
A close friend of Poindexter, DARPA’s program manager Douglas Gage, created LifeLog, which sought to “build a database tracking a person’s entire existence” that included peoples relationships, communications, thoughts, media consumption habits, purchases, behaviour, and much more, in order to build a digital record of “everything an individual says, sees, or does.” This was the first phase, and the data entry method was self-reporting (essentially getting people to spy on themselves). The second phase was take this unstructured data and organise it into “discreet episodes” and use it for “mapping out relationships, memories, events and experiences”. LifeLog creates a permanent and searchable electronic diary of a person’s entire life. It seems AI was to be applied to this data, developed by Howard Shrobe and others. While DARPA publicly denied clandestine surveillance, DARPA’s own documentation on LifeLog noted that the project “will be able . . . to infer the user’s routines, habits and relationships with other people, organizations, places and objects, and to exploit these patterns to ease its task,” which acknowledged its potential use as a tool of mass surveillance. The application of these two steps is to completely model and predict human behaviour. And for network modelling, enabling an unimaginably powerful and broad set of possibilities for control of populations on every conceivable level.
Among critics, Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation told VICE at the time of LifeLog’s cancellation, “It would not surprise me to learn that the government continued to fund research that pushed this area forward without calling it LifeLog.” MIT’s David Karger was also certain that the DARPA project would continue in a repackaged form. He told Wired that “I am sure such research will continue to be funded under some other title . . . I can’t imagine DARPA dropping out of a such a key research area.”
LifeLog was officially closed on February 4th, 2004. DARPA never provided an explanation for its quiet move to shutter LifeLog, with a spokesperson stating only that it was related to “a change in priorities” for the agency.
On February 4th, 2004 – the exact same day – Facebook was officially launched.
I hope its obvious that this, if an accident, would be an extraordinary coincidence.
Facebook performs the same tasks as LifeLog in gathering everything about peoples social connections, activities and behaviour. The first point at which I became deeply skeptical of Facebook was, in a signing-up experiment, when it demanded by personal information. Having been on platforms like Twitter, Myspace and others before (Quora is another), I knew that online anonymity is a part of the deal, with no expectation to use real names, passport photos, institutions attended, birthplace, real date of birth, or anything else that Facebook was now coercing me to give them. Passport information is something that only governments demand (employers too but this wasnt a job application). The notion that Facebook might be government-run, asking as it was for my passport information like a police officer, was already at that point a possibility.
At an oldly candid moment in 2015, Gage, DARPAs program manager, himself told VICE that “Facebook is the real face of pseudo-LifeLog at this point.”
It is also on record that figures in the Facebook-Instagram-WhatsApp (etc) group, now renamed ‘Meta’, are figures in or related to the FBI, NSA, CIA, and DARPA itself.
Examples of US Intelligence Community links:
Max Kelly – FBI and NSA, also US Digital Service in the Executive Office of the US President. His movements in NSA after – official – departure from Facebook, were kept secret for three years. Chief Security Officer of Facebook.
Sean Parker – CIA. Recruited by them at 16. First President of Facebook. Considered by many to be the person who brought to Facebook Peter Thiel. Thiel was then in coordination with the CIA (Parker’s employer), and was actively trying to resurrect controversial DARPA programs that had been officially dismantled the previous year. Thiel had been developing the core panopticon software that was the aim of TIA, with his shady company Palantir. Richard Perle, the Reagan-Bush neoconservative and architect of the Invasion of Iraq, called TIA’s Poindexter to introduce him to Thiel and associate Alex Karp, now Palantir’s CEO. Thus another link to George Bushes 9/11-led government, as well as the link from TIA to CIA, and from CIA to Facebook. During their first meeting, Thiel and Karp sought “to pick the brain of the man now widely viewed as the godfather of modern surveillance.”
Regina Dugan – DARPA. The group where all of this started. Dugan worked for DARPA from 1996, and became non other than their Director. In other words – Dugan led DARPA. There, she also led ‘strategic initiatives in the field of social media’. After that she worked at Google, and then Facebook, where she headed Facebooks mysterious ‘Building 8’, which is considered some sort of skunk-works secret projects department.
Marne Levine – daughter-in-law of 9/11-involved John Deutch, former Director of the CIA. First COO of Instagram. Previously worked at US Treasury Department.
Joel Kaplan – in the White House Chiefs of Staff for George Bush, to whom he was a special assistant as policy advisor. At Facebook, he succeeded Levine as vice president of global public policy.
Others of such a sensitive nature likely exist in influential roles at Facebook, now ‘Meta’.
My own experience: Being coerced by society to again sign up for a Facebook account (albeit only for emailing someone who gave no other contact information) I decided to make an ‘anonymous’ one – without real name, date of birth, passport photo, or other personal information that Facebook uniquely demands. It wasnt possible. It was not possible, and the account was blocked. Two highlights stick out to me:
1. When it locked me out, it demanded that I provide a photo, and either a copy of my passport or my drivers license. Have a think about that for a minute. A presumably civilian ‘socialising’ site is demanding your actual passport to make an account. On no other website in my life has this demand been levelled at me. This is clearly not a civillian operation.
2. I searched for an informal photo of some random person of my gender and roughly my age, to get the account unlocked. Once I uploaded this picture, I think a notice came saying something like ‘our staff will check the validity of this picture as a representation of you’. I was now beyond all reasonable doubt.
Lets agree on something: NO BUSINESS will spend resources on something like the accuracy of a free account-users photograph. Certainly not a genuine ‘social network’. This does not increase their profit (there is no money in it) and it doesnt improve the user experience by increasing customer loyalty. However, it DOES cost money – you have to pay people wages to check all the tens or hundreds of thousands of profiles being made. It does cost time and resources. So if this was a corporate entity, they are wasting time and money on something that has no benefit to them. In fact, this demand actually risks LOSING customers through its overstepping of privacy rights. The only non-work entity that demands a passport photo is the government. The only entity of any kind that would actually RUN CHECKS on a submitted photo is the government. No business would waste resources to check its validity. Therefor, Facebook has to be a government agency.
Sure enough, the photo was rejected. How did they know?! Well, they made it their business to find out. Not their business to do marketing, or improve the website, or make me feel welcome – but to check that my photo could be used to identify me. That they could put passport records to any future social and network activity.
A large part of the gravity of the LifeLog problem is that is does what no major entity did before it. Generally, governments demanded your formal information. But your social life was largely unknown to them. And also, websites where you divulge your thoughts, your interests, beliefs, and social network, did not demand your formal birth information. There was a degree of separation between the two worlds. What LifeLog has done is gather your psychosocial/behavioural information, and then pinned that to your government information. So they know everything about you – and can use that information however they want, whenever they want, whyever they want.
This just describes the outline of what LifeLog is. The actual possibilities with this system are, and I dont use this word lightly, unimaginable. I dont think theres a person on this planet who can picture in their mind the scope for abuse that Meta has for their mass and nature of information. 2-3 Billion humans, some of whom have been giving the Pentagon their personal, interactional, psychological and lifestyle data, daily, for two decades. Its the most powerful dataset that has ever been possessed – and in relation to the ‘next most’, by a multiple that itself is hard to conceptualise.
What we can be almost sure of, is that they know what we are going to do or think, years before we do it. You just cant deny the predictive might of a trillion human datapoints. Most unforgivable, is that it has all been given *voluntarily*, it has been proactively *offered* to the Pentagon, by Facebook and Instagram users. By people *spying on themselves* – without even asking for a DoD salary. Together, the people on the Meta data-gathering platform have done something that has never been achieved in the wildest dreams of even the most genocidal, oppressive fascist: they have given the government the information to predict, and control, every minute detail of what it is to be human, on any population level they wish, in any conceivable situation, for as long as this data can be preserved. The psychological, behavioural, relational data can now be fed into a quantum computer, to calculate any (and probably every) eventuality. What a government can do with that informational power is beyond any conceivable limit.
Fairy Penguins with Frickin Laser Beams.
Grenade Goannas.
Stumpy Tailed land-mines.
Brolga Bombers carrying C4 Cluster Budgies
Exploding echidnas with motion sensors.
Tasmanian Tiger Tank – not sighted but strong rumours it exists.
I like your style sir!
We could use bin chickens, load them up with 70% alc/vol from Bundaberg, then frighten them at the right moment! They could become a massive fuel-air explosive cloud. THAT would be a cool way to take out a drone swarm – if only we could persuade them to fly into a drone swarm together, void their flammable bowels in unison and arc up the ol’ zippo.
If we’re talking suicide birds, please make it plovers.
That’s a Bluey episode right there.
This is the country that some in the NRL want to host the 18th team.
Supported by Elbow.
The posture – ‘democracy v authoritarian’, ‘Axis of Ill Will’, ‘belligerent autocratic’ and so on – establishes that all on its own.
Gez, you totally rock!
I understand Bundaberg rum has long been owned by a British company.
The Beenleigh rum distillery is still in Australian hands, however.
Ukraine tells White House of plan to fire top commander – sources
By REUTERS
FEBRUARY 3, 2024 00:43
The Ukrainian government has informed the White House that it plans to fire the country’s top military commander overseeing the war against Russian occupation forces, two knowledgeable sources said on Friday.
The reported decision to oust General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, who has clashed with President Volodymyr Zelensky over military strategy and other issues, follows a Ukrainian counteroffensive last year that failed to recover significant amounts of Russian-held territory.
I’m confused as to why that monster throw alkali at the mother and her two children.
Known to each other, was he a rejected suitor or did a husband/family member somewhere else put him up to it.
And he’s still at large, who is hiding him.
Perhaps he has derefugeed.
I always called ISIS reavers, the the Firefly types, once again reality is about on par with fiction.
Hamas is just ISIS with another acronym.
That’s what I had in mind, Rosie.
75% 25% plus liquid oxygen for the V2. They’ve got one at the AWM at the annexe in Mitchell.
All perfectly plausible to those who believe in all sorts of nefarious animal weapons.sharks, lizards and many many birds
Harpies vs Great Eagles
Hippogryphs v Manticores
Sigmar Heldenhammer v Nagash
Muslims killing Muslims, Muslims flocking to support the latest new inproved dictatorship.
Nothing new under the sun.
working well in Yemen
Rosie don’t be confused, he’s a meusli. They do anything they like with no repercussions. You’ll remember how quiet they went after Cronulla. Past time to happen again.
I’m not a huge rum drinker; I prefer a good scotch or gin, BUT … when we were in Key West we toured Papa’s Pilar Rum. I have never tasted anything like it. As a friend of mine is wont to say, “It was just like an angel had pi$$ed on my tonsils!”.
Unfortunately, their products are not available in Australia. But they make some seriously good rums.
JohnJJJ
Mooslimes have “Allah’s truth”, the indig activists have “Their truth”.
It is becoming easier to see why the two groups are allying.
Calli,
not Plovers! I love Plovers.
ENERGY BATTERY STORAGE MYTH EXPOSED
By Cliff Reece – February 3, 2024
What is becoming clear is the level of statistical deception that is deliberately practised by climate activists in their hysterical pursuit of the Net Zero target.
In October the UK’s Daily Sceptic reported on a paper written for the Royal Society led by Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith of Oxford University that concluded batteries were not the answer to the huge storage requirements of intermittent ‘green’ electricity power.
Despite the prestigious academic fire power behind this conclusion (from the world’s oldest independent scientific academy), the popular media ignored it, presumably because of its unwelcome message about the much-touted battery solution.
But recent revelations suggest the report could act as a loose thread that helps unravel the collectivist Net Zero agenda in the U.K.
The Royal Society (Latin motto: Nullius in verba meaning ‘take nobody’s word for it’) analysed decades of local wind speeds and found the electricity system needed the equivalent of at least a third of green energy to be stored as backup!
It was pointed out that the cost of this would be astronomical and unrealistic.
Now it appears that the UK Government’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) fudged the issue by using just one year of high wind data in order to gain MPs’ approval for ‘Net Zero by 2050’ legislation that was then rushed through the UK parliament.
Sir Chris’s report showed that wind could fall away for days at a time during periods of intense cold dominated by high atmospheric pressure, as has happened in the recent past.
It also found wind speeds varied between years, which was previously already known and had been studied widely by other scientists.
The UK’s Telegraph newspaper has reported on remarks made by Sir Chris after the paper was published in which he noted that the CCC has “conceded privately” that reliance on one year’s data was a “mistake”.
It appears that the information given to MPs committing to 2050 Net Zero assumed there would be just seven days when wind turbines would produce less than 10% of their potential electricity output whereas there were far more days than just seven.
In reporting that the CCC has conceded the “mistake”, the Telegraph noted that Sir Chris said the committee was still saying it doesn’t differ much from his calculations.
“Well, that’s not quite true,” observed the Oxford Emeritus Professor.
Asked by the newspaper if it disputed the account of Sir Chris, the Government’s Climate Change Committee spokesperson blithely stated that it had, “Nothing further to add”.
Of course, the ‘Noble Lie’ that Net Zero must be foisted on an unwilling population whatever the economic and societal cost will need to be preserved.
“Nothing to see here – move along please” is likely to guide most mainstream media in covering these latest revelations.
The well-respected investigative science writer Paul Homewood is less inclined to ignore the serious matter.
“It is now clear that Parliament authorised Net Zero without any proper assessment, whether financial or energy, and the whole Net Zero legislation must now be suspended until a full independent assessment is carried out.”
https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/large-scale-electricity-storage/V1_Large-scale-electricity-storage-report.pdf?mc_cid=32564c5798&mc_eid=958eef43fa
100 page PDF – worth downloading
OldOzzie
And we are still refused the means to protect ourselves. That is the most digusting fact of all.
What will happen to a Jewish Man who uses a firearm to protect himself and his family? That’s right. He’ll be put in prison and killed by the Muslims who control the system.
They’ll sign up for a dive bombing mission. It’s their raison d’être.
Just think brave lads in the Battle of Britain. 😀
I don’t think Allah would have much truck with the Rainbow Serpent.
The indigene activists concerned haven’t thought this one through.
(Funny, too, how the whole discussion is framed within Western notions of sovereignty and nationhood. Say, maybe they’re just all Marxist inspired anti-imperialists?)
What is becoming clear is the level of statistical deception that is practised across climate science and the promotion of Net Zero.
And it’s not just in the UK – the same applies here in Australia.
Surface temperature measurements are frequently adjusted upwards on a retrospective basis despite ignoring growing ‘urban heat’ considerations.
Activists use inaccurate computer models to promote ‘garbage-in, garbage-out’ scares on an almost daily basis.
Bad weather is deliberately confused with long-term climate to suggest the latter is changing due to human-caused carbon dioxide (CO2).
And BoM weather forecasts have now added the concept of “feels like” when referring to temperature. This, of course, allows them to increase the actual temperature so that it sounds even hotter than it is. This leads to the hysterical claim of another ‘heatwave’.
Who are they to decide what it “feels like”?
Does the temperature “feel like” it’s just as hot to a recent migrant from India as it does to a Canadian migrant?
And what about how it “feels like” to someone living in Darwin compared to a born and bred Tasmanian – do they both think it “feels like” the same?
The arrogance of these third-rate BoM boffins is astounding – they can’t even accurately predict next week’s weather and yet they lecture us on long-term climate issues!
And worst of all, this is all blindly accepted by the mainstream media increasingly funded by so-called ‘elite’ businessmen like ‘Twiggy’ Forrest and Simon Holmes à Court.
The latter being the primary source of funding for the Teals via Climate 200.
It should be clear to everyone that people like them have only one objective and that is to become even richer off the backs of a long-suffering public whose energy, food, and everyday consumer goods prices continue to escalate as a direct result of our socialist federal government’s obsession with Net Zero.
And we all know whose driving this climate crusade in Australia……our beloved Minister for High Energy Prices, the Dishonourable Chris ‘Blackouts’ Bowen!
God’s Blood we called it, as we leaned on the ute tray in the early soft dusk, adrenalin still singing in our veins from mustering or shooting.
Throw the top away, tip out an inch from the can of coke, fill it up and invert with thumb over the top, then the first long satisfying draught.
It was the circuit breaker after a hard day, it put hairs on your chest – even the girls – as we yarned the night in, reliving the day with laughter and youth, careless of the years to come, we were invincible.
Bundy rum. No place for girly men there.
Now this is cool – a friend introduced me to a used book-shop ‘Rite Price Books and Bits’.
I just used Street View to go there and browse the shelves!
I can imagine a situation where after their rigorous training, the Aussie Eagles of Death are deployed in an overseas theatre with great success.
Hailed as heroes with Albo takes huge credit for kicking off the program.
A Victory parade is planned for the surviving birds, only to be foiled when the Aussie Eagles of Death are not allowed through Quarantine and must be destroyed (humanely).
The New York Times editors must have suffered the same type of stroke as Fetterman. Even six months ago, they would never have published an article such as this.
there’s very good rum distiller 30 minutes up the road from here
https://jimmyrum.com.au/
tasted a few of their crimes at Dan Murphy’s sometime last year.
excellent stuff
Correct.
In their previous lives, plovers were parking cops.
In the same credulous way the MSM reported
“Fnck Joe Biden” = “Let’s go Brandon”
they incuriously report the NSW Plod conclusion that
“Gas the Jews” = “Where’s the Jews”
And the Liberal Party stares at their feet, in silence.
Argentinian honey badger has had a bit of a win..
Argentina’s lower house votes for Javier Milei’s sweeping reform package
Far-right president’s measures aimed at tackling the country’s severe economic problems passed easily despite public protests
Someone who wants less government regiulation and control over people, business and the economy is “far right”.
FFS
Of course, the Muslim relationship with imperialism is…”complex.”
Another thing the indigenes allying with them likely haven’t thought about.
I was walking along the Barwon River in Geelong, near the Moorabool St bridge once and got attacked by Plovers. They don’t swoop. They fly straight at you. It was scary shit. Ghastly ground nesting vermin.
CHINESE IN INDONESIA
and
Chinese in Malaysia
Malaysian Chinese are the second largest ethnic group in Malaysia. Mostly descendants of Chinese immigrants during the 19th century, the Chinese are known for their diligence and keen business sense.
The three sub-groups who speak a different dialect of the Chinese language are the Hokkien who live predominantly on the northern island of Penang; the Cantonese who live predominantly in the capital city Kuala Lumpur; and the Mandarin-speaking group who live predominantly in the southern state of Johor.
In Sarawak this 25 percent is made up of a mix of dialect groups including Foochow, Hakka, Hokkien, Teochew, Hainanese and Puxian Min while in Sabah the population of Chinese drops to around 10 percent who predominantly speak the Hakka language. [Source: Malaysian Government Tourism]
In the past, Malaysia was divided into the Chinese haves and Malay have nots.
Ethnic tension ran high.
A Chinese living in Malaysia I talked with compared the situation in his country to apartheid.
Assimilation has been particularly difficult for Chinese in Malaysia and Indonesia where Islamic practices discourage marriages involving Muslims and non-Muslims.
For local people marrying a non-Muslim is also seen as rejection of Muslim-based nationalist pride.
In Indonesia and Malaysia, cultural assimilation of Chinese has been less common because of Islam and the emphasis placed “peoples of the soil” — which excludes Chinese — an important expression of ethnic and national identity that tends to impede intermarriage and full assimilation.
By contrast, Chinese have tended to assimilate more readily in the Buddhist countries of mainland Southeast Asia such as Thailand.
Calli,
they could use Sulphur Cresteds. Release thousands of them at the drones. If the screeching didn’t cause the drones to implode, the cockies would tear the drones to pieces. We all know how destructive the turds are. Also, the loss of thousands of Cockies would be a plus.
😀
Chris
Feb 3, 2024 4:49 PM
Now this is cool – a friend introduced me to a used book-shop ‘Rite Price Books and Bits’.
I just used Street View to go there and browse the shelves!
Chris,
that is amazing
I can now browse my second hand book shop bookshelves at Half Back Book & Record Exchange Crows Nest from my iMac
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Half+Back+Book+%26+Record+Exchange/@-33.8266926,151.2018119,2a,75y,329.08h,75t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1syLoEzT2C4Re9msq_UtMnYw!2e0!3e2!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DyLoEzT2C4Re9msq_UtMnYw%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D224%26h%3D298%26yaw%3D329.08124%26pitch%3D15%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656!4m18!1m8!3m7!1s0x6b12aeebb7255741:0x5017d681632b370!2sCrows+Nest+NSW+2065!3b1!8m2!3d-33.8241049!4d151.2027151!16zL20vMDM1Y3Nq!3m8!1s0x6b12aee9ce13dd91:0xc9cd8a6af2250de4!8m2!3d-33.8267015!4d151.2017777!10e5!14m1!1BCg0KCS9tLzAzX196MDAB!16s%2Fg%2F1tdnl8cd?entry=ttu
Turnip, the phalanx of heroic eagles return to Oz to great acclaim via the East Coast Wind Farm.
Oh.
This is a wonderful idea.
Pogs – I’ve experienced first hand the destruction that Sulphur Crested Cockies are capable of causing – but they do indeed need to channel that magnificent dragon energy into some useful purposes.
They are quite possibly the most magnificent Ozzie beast in my o’pinion, especially given how many spectacular Ozzie birds we have been gifted with.
They can be tamed and they have very, very long lives. When I lived in Canberrastan, they could blanket fields so thoroughly it looked like the latter were covered in snow.
Winston, I think this is a bit thin. Tony Thomas’s report on Cronulla (Part 2) showed that even 20 years ago, the rabid troublemakers were able to call in 50 fellow shi1bags to beat up anyone that challenged them. Even then plenty had firearms available, and used them on the streets.
Being allowed to license a firearm for the purpose of self-defense is not nearly enough protection against organised gangs of free-associating armed thugs.
Fast communication with Police, video evidence collection, and licensed carry are not anywhere near enough. Citizens need the ability to swarm a mob of armed, motorised shitbags and face them down.
This would need a level of civil defense organisation that would absolutely not be allowed in Australia. The ruling class media and senior Police could not tolerate that level of organisation, training, the app on your phone, that willingness to stand together against their murderous minorities or that lack of dependence on those in power.
Dover – check your email, Squire! 🙂
We need to train Dorpers with lasers.
Pedro says they’re both smart & ferocious.
Chris:
Do these Dronemakers have a name, cos I’ve been thinking of getting one for next time I go out playing hide & seek with the piggies.
Everyone here complaining about Plovers. They are protecting their babies. Are they not allowed the same defenses as we?
Besides, what kind of man is frightened by a 200gm bird?
Lucky you don’t live in Cassowary country.
Just finished reading The Weekend Australian. Whew – the articles of Sheridan (yes, I know a lot of you think he is a dud) and Alan Dupont (can’t be bothered with Monk – as I think he lives in the past). Had to have two glasses of wine.
I have thought we are all in a spot of trouble in the West, but it takes some consideration of what has occurred in the last 12 months to realise the extent of the “bother”.
Just visited granddaughter back from a trip to Bali (funded by p/t jobs & executed on her own) after getting outstanding results in the HSC. She is so buoyed with her future. Planning her next OS trip in between uni studies………what can I say?
Dot
Feb 3, 2024 4:14 PM
I normally HATE Quora, but this is worth it.
Dot, I take special pride in religiously avoiding any ticking, up or down.
But this foetid, flatulent, fatuous BS-laden word-wall seriously tested my resolve…
A close call though..
They have no need of lasers.
Angry little penguin stops plane taking off in New Zealand (31 Jan)
Big birdies are no match for small penguins.
Fani Willis admits she is Involved with Nathan Wade
“Finally, the district attorney Fani Willis in Georgia, who brought a case against former President Donald Trump, and the special prosecutor she appointed, Nathan Wade, are in a personal relationship. This entire thing is out of control with the abuse of the rule of law in New York, Washington, and Georgia. All three of these cases smell like a political vendetta. What is clear is that this is all a giant conspiracy that they have no doubt been planning and coordinating. This deliberate interference in the 2024 election is an outright crime. The governor of Georgia should suspend Willis instantly. This entire case should now be reviewed by independent legal experts and may require dismissal with prejudice.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/fulton-county-district-attorney-acknowledges-personal-relationship-with-top-trump-prosecutor-5579387?utm_source=RTNews&src_src=RTNews&utm_campaign=rtbreaking-2024-02-02-2&src_cmp=rtbreaking-2024-02-02-2&utm_medium=email&est=wu%2FHbOFMnHPp%2FoSumjVpye1YMJuPgRdPflFcPMX6BW8UKFlAhUnZ55ACH5OUR4NPgElLn%2F3mDoI%3D
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/rule-of-law/fani-willis-admits-she-is-involved-with-nathan-wade/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
You will exist in “interesting times”. 😕
They are quite possibly the most magnificent Ozzie beast in my o’pinion, especially given how many spectacular Ozzie birds we have been gifted with.
Not when the damn things eat every apple on the trees when you are away.
Pogria, I would agree with you if plovers weren’t parking cops in their previous lives.
Helen, thanks for the memories. From a time when the belt buckle had enough airspace behind it to hold the wallet.
Just learned that Carl Weathers played NFL for the Raiders.
Greta feeling the cold
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/debate-over-whether-captain-cook-statue-will-be-rebuilt/news-story/8d42397a363c57bbe20f66f13fd6acea
Do you think the Captain Cook statue should be rebuilt?
Yes 97 %
No 3 %
434 votes
they could use Sulphur Cresteds.
Cant
War crime.
It was bad enough exporting eucalyptus to the USA to act as sleeper agents.
never forget
Weird, I just watched that video and just after the tweet was deleted.
It was 4 or 5 hamas standing over about 15 to 20 Israeli hostages, a couple of older men but mostly women and children.
Leak’s Cartoon and the NSW Police Anti-Semantics –
This is how they got it all wrong –
https://youtu.be/7my5baoCVv8
digital begging in Gaza
I think Cook’s statue should be planted upsidedown in the dirt next to the plinth, and the two perps impaled, one each, onto his sawn off legs. There to die painfully and slowly as they meditate on their stupidity.
Afterwards put him back, but leave the bloodstains intact as a reminder.
That’s nice. Enjoy your declining IQ.
Mark Leach on what happened in Sydney.
No, that was mean.
I’m sorry. I just really, really, really hate FaceBook.
We came back after two nights away and our laden plum tree had been utterly stripped. Not a stone, not a pecked scrap of fruit remained on the tree. Not a trace of fruit remained on the tree or the ground beneath.
I didn’t blame the sulphur crested, though. I finally decided it might be rats. They (I think) had dug a runway under the bottom of the compost bins. Some block baits in there seemed to result in the runways going dead.
calli, 11.06am
The actual plan for the Port Stephens offshore wind fcukination is to run the cables through Stockton Bight and the Sandhills to connect at Tomago. The Bight is a shared indigenous protected zone, but I haven’t heard a single peep from them about this.
Good luck in Canberra on Tuesday, I can’t make it for family reasons, but I would have been on the bus, colours flying.
Cats in the West will also know the same destructo plans are up for the Mandurah-Dunsborough coast, with all the same destructive impacts. Son lives there, is as cranky as we are on this coast.
Naaaa, really?
Dot
Feb 3, 2024 5:27 PM
I’m sorry. I just really, really, really hate FaceBook.
Same here.
But Quora is no better.. Just spam folder detritus with an impenetrable business model for making (?any?) money.
A bit like Reddit.
don’t forget this one either
We had our satsuma plums and morello cherries stripped in one day by the crows. First time and the fruit wasnt ripe. Usually the odd nibble. Plenty of rats in canbra but they just help themselves to your back pocket.
There is absolutely no doubt that Fecesbook is a alphabet agency honeypot.
Id go so far as to feculate that people who have never been on it have cashes of info siloed there as well.
Edgar j Hoover would bust out of his girdle at the sheer amount of blackmail material hed have at his fingertips.
A guy’s slobbing out in trackies, slippers and a paint splattered t-shirt, watching TV when his wife asks him to pop round the shop to get some eggs for his tea.
He’s gone a long time and his wife is getting worried when there’s a knock at the door. She opens it and there’s a cop who tells her he’s been hit by a lorry and she has to come down to the morgue to identify the body.
The morque assistant leads her in and she confirms it’s her husband then she notices another body laying on the next table; he’s wearing immaculately shined shoes, and a beautifully tailored Italian silk suit.
She says to the assistant “Look at that, that guy looks like a male model, and there’s my old man looking like a tramp”
The assistant looks around to check no-one’s listening and says “he hasn’t been claimed yet, give me five minutes”
She goes out and waits in the corridor, a couple of minutes later the assistant beckons her back in.
Now the unknown body is wearing trackies, slippers and a paint spattered t-shirt and her husband is wearing shiny shoes and a beautifully tailored Italian silk suit.
“Oh, doesn’t he look lovely” she says but then her conscience takes over and she says “No, I can’t let that poor man’s family see him like that when they do come for him, I’m sorry to mess you about but can you change him back if it’s not too much trouble?”
“It’s no trouble at all” he says, “I’ll just swap the heads back over”
Dot’s Quora link reckons you need info like a driver’s license and or passport information to join Facebook. Is that true?
My brother in Christ, don’t start me on Reddit!
I found THE master thread where the ONE trans lefty weirdo takes most of the credit for shutting down anyone “right” of the Bush admin. “Bardfinn”.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/s/ycV6lsaSL6
Reddit has never even made a bullshit EBITDA profit.
I remember many years ago, Fraser got Datsun to start building 180bs here. Specifically the LPG type.*
They built the factory and started churning out cars.
Fraser then increased the LPG tax to the point that no one could afford the new cars.
Datsun folded and walked away.
*Memory may have failed me on some details, but that’s the guts of it.
We have plovers guarding our beachhouse. They only seem to move about 100m from our place. I like them.
JC, no idea,
Any Western Australian Cats remember the uproar from the likes of Robert Bropho, when the statue of Yagan was beheaded?
Way to go quaintarse, wifes flight cancelled another 1 3/4 hrs later. If they we hopeless it would be an improvement.
Thanks Maree S.
Worromi National Park, Hunter wetlands. What could possibly go wrong?
When a dope calls themselves an “environmentalist”, just subtract the “enviro” and “ist”. The rest is padded cell ready.
My comment on plover was neither “love” nor “hate”.
They are simply fit for purpose.
Just took a looksee.
Facebook doesn’t require driver’s license and or passport details. That appears to be bullshit. Not that I want to defend that shitshow, or Fcukerberg.
https://www.facebook.com/reg/
Dot, that link looks like it was exaggerating.
JC
Feb 3, 2024 5:43 PM
Dot’s Quora link reckons you need info like a driver’s license and or passport information to join Facebook. Is that true?
No.
And I’d hazard a guess that the rest of that word-wall “answer” is just as accurate.
JC
Not always, but they will ask sometimes. Old mate says it’s because he tried to make a completely fake profile. Yes there are bots but who owns them? Their profiles may not be completely fake either. I know one guy who had a completely fake profile, one out of the thousands of people I know and he has a very old account. Others have slightly fake names etc. I know a (LOL) lesbian activist who got banned for trying to have separate work and personal profiles.
I’ve had three email based accounts.
The last one got stuck in limbo – an infinite loop of logging in – maybe they pinged the same phone no. as email based account 2 or it could have been my gender being “Attack Helicopter”.
It’s silly that they straight up ban multiple accounts, what if you lose your phone or email account? What if my nephew had the same name as me and bought my phone off me and kept the number and obviously would have a different email address?
That or they can’t take a joke and ought to be tracking an ultra right wing terrorist like me who insists outside of medical disease, there are virtually only two genders.
Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In Recent History
BY TYLER DURDEN
On the surface, it was an blockbuster jobs report, certainly one which nobody expected.
Starting at the top, the BLS reported that in January the US unexpectedly added 353K “jobs” – the most since January 2023 (when the print was 482K compared to 131K) , double the consensus forecast of 185K and more than the highest Wall Street estimate (300K from Natixis).
In fact, this was a 4-sigma beat to estimate, unheard of in the past year.
The headline data was stellar across the board, starting with the unemployment rate which once again failed to rise – denying expectations from “Sahm’s Rule” that a recession may have already started – all the way to average hourl(”) to 4.5%, the highest since last September, and a slap in the face to the Fed’s disinflation narrative…
… or it would be if one didn’t think of checking how the average rose: well, it turns out that, since average hourly earnings is a fraction, it did not rise due to a jump in actual wages but – since it is earnings over a period of time – “rose” because the BLS decided to sharply slash the number of estimated hours that everyone was working, from 34.3 to just 34.1, which may not sound like a lot until one realizes that the last time the workweek was this low was when the economy was shut down during covid. Excluding the covid lockdowns, one would have to go back to 2010 to find a workweek that was this anemic.
And speaking of revisions, we had a lot of those: in January, the BLS conducted its annual “annual re-benchmarking and update of seasonal adjustment factors.” Long story short, what was until December a decline in jobs has now been miraculously transformed into gains, as shown in the chart below.
For those asking, the revisions were unambiguously designed to give the impression that the labor market is slowing much less than it is. Consider this: before the revision, the average monthly job gain in 2021 was largely unchanged (606K pre-revision vs 604K post), and while the average monthly gain in 2022 was revised lower (from 399K to 377K), this was purposefully goalseeked to make 2023 appear stronger, and indeed the average monthly increase in 2023 has been revised from 225K to 255K.
Which would be great, if only it wasn’t almost entirely due to the BLS’s latest choice of seasonal adjustments, which have gone from merely laughable to full clownshow, as the following comparison between the revised BLS Payrolls number and the ADP payrolls show: the trend is clear: the Biden admin numbers are now clearly rising even as the impartial ADP (which directly logs employment numbers at the company level and is actually far more accurate), shows an accelerating slowdown.
And speaking of seasonal adjustments, the January print was all seasonals, because while the seasonally adjusted payrolls was up 353K, the unadjusted was down 2.635 million, a 3 million jobs delta.
In other words, just a 10% error rate in the seasonal adjustment (roughly where it falls) would wipe out the entire gain and make January increase a decline. Then again, this is the case with every January jobs report, because as shown below, the actual change in jobs in the first month of the year is down anywhere between 2.5 million and 3 million!
But it’s more than just the Biden admin hanging its “success” on seasonal adjustments: when one digs deeper inside the jobs report, all sorts of ugly things emerge… such as the latest divergence between the Establishment (payrolls) and much more accurate Household (actual employment) survey. To wit, while in January the BLS claims 353K payrolls were added, the Household survey found that the number of actually employed workers dropped again, this time by 31K (from 161.183K to 161.152K).
This means that while the Payrolls series hits new all time highs every month since December 2020 (when according to the BLS the US had its last month of payrolls losses), the level of Employment has barely budged in the past year. Worse, as shown in the chart below, such a gaping divergence has opened between the two series in the past 4 years, that the number of Employed workers would need to soar by 9 million (!) to catch up to what Payrolls claims is the employment situation.
There’s more: shifting from a quantitative to a qualitative assessment, reveals just how ugly the composition of “new jobs” has been. Consider this: the BLS reports that in January 2024, the US had 133.1 million full-time jobs and 27.9 million part-time jobs. Well, that’s great… until you look back one year and find that in February 2023 the US had 133.2 million full-time jobs, or more than it does one year later! And yes, all the job growth since then has been in part-time jobs, which have increased by 870K since February 2023 (from 27.020 million to 27.890 million).
But wait there’s even more, because just as we enter the peak of election season and political talking points will be thrown around left and right, especially in the context of the immigration crisis created intentionally by the Biden administration which is hoping to import millions of new Democratic voters (maybe the US can hold the presidential election in Honduras or Guatemala, after all it is their citizens that will be illegally casting the key votes in November), what we find is that in January, the number of native-born worker tumbled again, sliding by a massive 560K to just 129.807 million. Add to this the December data, and we get a near-record 1.9 million plunge in native-born workers in just the past 2 months!
Said otherwise, not only has all job creation in the past 4 years has been exclusively for foreign-born workers, but there has been zero job-creation for native born workers since July 2018!
Which is also why the Biden admin will do everything in his power to insure there is no official recession before November… and is why after the election is over, all economic hell will finally break loose.
Until then, however, expect the jobs numbers to get more and more ridiculous.
No. Second worst case scenario after identity theft with no help from corporate or unexplained outright banning (a blessing in disguise).
https://www.facebook.com/help/582999911881572
How can a private organisation actually verify a government issued ID?
On caches of information to be garnered on soshul media, whatever platform….
There are idiot “yummy mummies” out there posting photos of their children, “first day at school”, their children’s names and schools along with their own idiotic doings on a day to day basis.
Do these vacuous halfwits realise the danger of what they are doing?
No.
Actually half right and half very wrong.
EVERYONE HAS A PROFILE THERE.
Wow…it’s like stepping back into the early ’90s.
Is all of Perth like that?
It is true in part.
Facebook either randomly (or by secret algorithm) from time to time will lock the account of selected users & unfreeze it only upon upload of a scan (usually .jpg or similar) of govt issue photo ID, in which the face & birthdate must match those declared on the account.
Facebook does not keep, retain, or record the information on this ID **(driver’s licence or passport) using it only to verify the account is not a fake.
(** it is relatively easy to photoedit a driving licence or passport to match the ID, provided you remember the date of birth entered in to Facebook & have a passport-style 2nd photo of the face being used for the account)
Justifiably so. They are the stupidest avians ever invented.
They wouldn’t have to if they did what normal birds did and nested in trees. But no.
These idiot creatures nest not only on the ground, but in the areas most subject to human traffic – school ovals, nature strips, golf courses and walkways.
No. Because they’re stupid, and far lower down the food chain than we.
‘Frightened’ is the wrong word. It’s a lightweight flying machine with hooks on its wings that is both angry and stupid. Or possibly angry because it’s stupid. I am cautious of 150 gram tarantulas, but they don’t make it their business to get in my way as I go about life.
Trust me – cassowaries can be neutralised with a three foot star picket, just as plovers can be with a four iron.
Old Ozzie
I hate to bust that Tyler D balloon, but the bond market reacted to that number by dragging yields a lot higher. It also impacted negatively on regional bank stocks because it would mean the Fed would have to keep rates high for longer and they’re encumbered with low yielding assets, which means regionals have a high negative correlation to bond yield behavior. Bond market players didn’t spot the aberration, and neither did bank stock junkies. Only Negative Hedge did. Sure.
Social media video of a tourist trying to feed a Cassowary.
Up there with tourists trying to get a selfie with a bison in the US.
Sweet cheesecake I’ve got to read what people write. Mea culpa.
Oh really, so they could ask you for proof after you’ve opened an account. Wow.
Thanks Dot.
Here’s the thing about Facebook though. I read that Facebook took hours to close down the video of that lunatic showing his father’s severed head. If this was an intel operation, wouldn’t they have taken it down quickly?
Just thinking out loud here and I’m not disputing that’s it has intel connections.
No JC
If you follow the link, there is a part which won’t copy on my iPhone which talks about confirming your name – hence on signing up.
Plenty of people don’t use their birth name in everyday life. Unless you’re in prison, that’s not necessary.
I’ve never managed to get the attention of a plover. That’s something, since I can befriend wood ducks, who are dumb as rocks. Plovers are actually dumber than wood ducks.
I did once have a plover chick in my hands, it was a nice little birdie. But sadly not long for the world since it had a broken leg, probably after being hit by a car.
Speaking of chicks my exploit of the day was to get one of the new butcherbird kids to accept food from my hand for the first time this morning. That was fun! Then he did so twice more during the day. He looks to be male, being darker in colour than his two sisters. Mum and dad arrive each day and have been taking away vast amounts of Coles mince, so there may be more than the three that I’ve seen so far.
With regard to WTE recruits. They won’t be coming from my location as the filthy wind factory has taken care of them – and their offspring.
I cannot recall the precise wording of dickbook’s terms and conditions, but it is something like the following:
Dickbook reserves the right to rape you up the arsch and sell the videos to the CCP for cash whenever it chooses to do so.
About 15 years ago, I had some cute gal friends not only post some too sexy for job applications pics on FB, but they also posted their home address.
FFS.
Regarding the Facebook sign up business, I’ve got 3 accounts, none of them have a real name and no details were required.
No name, address, phone number, nothing. They were however, all created between 2011 and 2016.
Today might be a whole different thing.