onetrack

Yes, you just have to question why a large commercial aircraft such as a B777 flew into a major hailstorm - even if it was at low level and close to the airport, I'm sure they could've arranged a delay to avoid it.

Birds take every opportunity to land on ships when the weather is poor - and there's a surprisingly large number of boats out there in the oceans, at any one time.

My middle nephew bought himself a 61' Riviera flybridge cruiser from Sydney about 3 yrs ago and flew over to Sydney from Perth and then drove it home - mostly because it was much cheaper than trucking it.

They were churning along through the Bight, many dozens of NM's offshore, at good rate of knots from the 2 x 1000HP Cat engines, at about 2:00AM, when the nephew did a walk-around the outer decking to get some exercise.

He spotted an unrecognisable dark shape apparently draped over the top railing - and thought it was a towel or a rag, one of his 2 shipmates had hung there earlier. He reached out to pick it up in the gloom - and it promptly pecked him! 

He got the shock of his life, when he realised it was a bird just sitting there, having a rest! The bird didn't fly off, he/she was quite content to sit there, and it was obvious it was something it had done a considerable amount of, previously.

.....a black snake on a hot bitumen road in the middle of February. "You b*****d!! You've made all this up! You're a rotten, lying, flea-bitten mongrel piece of humanity!! I'm going to...." - and at that, he advanced threateningly on Salty, who stood up, and stepped back in alarm - whereby he promptly tripped over the Esky full of stubbies and bottles, that he'd forgotten about.

Cappy spotted the Esky, and his manner immediately became much more pleasant and ameliatory (look that word up!).

"You didn't tell me you were hiding an Esky full of grog here, you cunning b******s!", said Cappy in an exasperated tone. "It wasn't hidden, you only had to ask about it", said Salty, rising to his feet.

"You wouldn't happen to have a G&T in there, by any chance", said Cappy. "I've got a terrible thirst from driving that Wolseley - it's like all Pommy chariots, it will cook you on a Winters day!"

Salty said, "I'm sure I saw some gay kind of drink, like that, in there" - and that immediately enraged Cappy again, and he...........

The greater concern is exactly where the Chinese submarines are at present, and what they're doing. The Chinese have 56 submarines and the U.S. Navy has 68.

But I'll wager the Chinese submarines are probing the U.S. defences, just as much as the U.S. Navy is probing the Chinese defences. I bet it's currently a real cat and mouse game under the waves.

When I owned a gold mine at Higginsville in the Southern Goldfields in the 1970's and 1980's, there was a big mob of wild donkeys that roamed around the Western Goldfields Woodlands area, West from Higginsville, up towards Coolgardie, Westwards out past Victoria Rock and almost to Jilbadji Nature Reserve at Parker Range. They travelled down towards Norseman as well, covering a huge area.

I never saw any donkey in that mob attack a kangaroo, and I never ever found a dead kangaroo that looked like it had been killed by a donkey grabbing it by the head. I don't believe those donkeys ever saw the kangaroos as a threat.

I'd have to say if you let donkeys loose on an airstrip, trying to get rid of kangaroos, that would only give you the choice of hitting a donkey or a kangaroo, when you attempted a landing. 

Kangaroos are normally best got rid of, by regularly chasing them away, shooting at them, and by securely fencing any area that you don't want them in.

When they never get bothered, they keep turning up, knowing full well there's no way they're going to get chased or harassed. 

Unsurprisingly, 'roos are most fearful of panicky foot thump sounds, which is their aural alert, normally created by other 'roos taking off in fright. So a foot thump sound-making device looks the most promising 'roo scarer.

https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2005/12/05/1515850.htm

I don't think I'd be courageous enough to go on a public forum and admit that I voted for this narcissistic fool.

His Presidential legacy is an America more divided and abusive and intolerant than ever - and I believe that's what Trump revels in.

Outstanding previous Presidents of the U.S. - Harry Truman comes to mind - were true leaders who left America in better shape than it was handed to them in.

Trump doesn't know what true leadership is, he's too busy promoting himself and his businesses.

He considers himself the master of "deals", but there's not a single "deal" he organised, that has benefitted the American people, or stood up to a litmus test as an excellent piece of diplomatic negotiation.

.......make a massive return, enough for Salty to go buy a new European exotic "plastic fantastic" LSA. So Salty was perusing the glitzy websites for the choice of his dreams, when OT interrupted his dreaming.

"What about keeping your money here, and buying a local product?", he said. "I've got a mate who's got a new design, straight off the drawing board, 100HP gives you 130 kts at 10 litres an hour, it's rated at 600kg MTOW, comes with a 'chute as standard equipment, and the interior has to be seen to be believed!"

"Let me see it!", exclaimed Salty. "When's it in production?" "He says, end of this year", said OT. "There appears to be a sizeable waiting list already, though, you may have to be patient."

"Can I get the interior done in the finish of my choice?", said Salty eagerly. "I'm quite impartial to a rabbit fur finish, and.......

... and it more than likely utilised quite a bit of stolen American technological spacecraft knowledge. I believe the Chinese still have a way to go to match U.S. technological knowledge.

Their problem is their style of repressive Govt and ideology, and their need to control people that disagree with the ruling Party aims and desires.

But they are very harsh with their methods of "control" of people that cause disagreement with the Communist Party aims.

Their system does not really encourage independent development of technological ideas, as we do in Western Democratic countries.

I remember listening to a radio item on China quite some years ago, and this radio documentary pointed out that China's great industrial leap forward was basically driven by a core of about 200,000, Western educated Chinese engineers, scientists, developers and chemists.

You don't go to China to advance your technological knowledge, and to do your technological research, you get it from Western Universities, and the Western education system, which has been, and still is, in high demand in Asia.

The current pandemic and the harsh talk and trade barriers between China and the Western world must be affecting their technological education base.

I have not forgotten what the ideology of the peasant personality cult of Chairman Mao Zedong did to China in the 1960's.

He destroyed much of China's progressing technology base, wiped out millions of highly educated and skilled Chinese, and took the country backwards a couple of centuries within a few short years.

It took the Chinese a generation to recover from Mao Zhedongs peasant-mentality orders, and his flawed, destructive, ideology-based decisions.

The major problem is, the current leadership in China worships Mao Zedong and his ideology, and that spells future disaster for the Chinese.

Even more so, as President Jinping considers himself a modern-day Chairman Mao, and has initiated another personality cult based on himself as China's greatest leader, and one who can never be displaced, thanks to his engineering his Presidency for life. None of this augurs well for Chinas future, their ideology is more flawed than the Nazis ideology.

.....him hard with a handful of bunny tails, making the little jerk sit right back on his a***, unable to say any more, because of his gob full of bunny fur.

However, right as the 4 (near) astronauts walked towards the waiting crowd, a CASA operative fronted them and started asking pertinent questions.

"Where's your rocket pilot licences? Did you obtain permission to fly through CASA-controlled airspace in a rocket? Do you have CASA authorisation to carry 3000 rabbits in an aircraft?"

Right behind the CASA bloke were a couple of mean-looking Australian Border Force operatives. "Did you get permission from Customs to bring in all those rabbits from Inner Space?"

"Are you all in possession of COVID-19 border passes? Have the rabbits been vaccinated? We can't afford to allow in any rare species of animals that may transfer viruses!"

"Geez", groaned Cappy under his breath. "At least we didn't have to put up with this restrictive crap in Space! Let's go back there!" And with that, the 4 intrepid adventurers turned around and......

All those laws have long been repealed, Spacey. They do update the laws regularly to reflect current conditions and requirements.

The problem with the illegal campers, is that they're nearly all "use-up merchants". And none more so, than many of the younger European campervan travellers and "backpackers".

The warmer beachside spots such as Broome and Darwin are notorious for them. They camp in the beachside carparks, utilise all the free toilet facilities, annoy other beachgoers by taking up extra car park spaces to hang out their washing, and monopolise the public BBQ's and make maximum use of the free rubbish facilities.

They are public pests, pure and simple, and the harsher the Rangers are on moving them, the better.

I do have sympathy for those on low incomes who get turfed out of their rented accommodation by greedy landlords, and who have to resort to living in their car out of sheer necessity and desperation.

Near my rented factory unit, there's a small public open area with several large trees in it. This spot adjoins a sports oval, with a fenced main stormwater drain running at 90° to the road and oval.

There's an Indian or Pakistani Uber or taxi driver who lives in his car in this spot, all day, every day - and he has done for at least 2-1/2 years, that I can recall. He obviously works night shift, and sleeps in the car during the day.

The Rangers don't seem to have picked up on him, they leave him alone, because he moves his car every day, and it's not there at night.

He's making maximum use of the law to minimise his living costs. I have no idea where he accesses a toilet, I guess he uses free public toilets, but there's not one close by.

I wonder how many more immigrants are living like him?

I didn't see any highly-trained American police troopers, beating and harrassing and shooting anyone, in the video. The place must be improving!

In W.A., we had an idiot of a former Liberal Premier who pissed $308M of taxpayers money into trying to rebuild 2 rotted-out, rusty old coal-fired, adjoining power stations (Muja A & B).

Accountants brought in to try and give some numbers and comfort to the Liberals who were in charge of the shambles, stated that if the $300M already poured down the drain was written off, and another $46M poured into getting the power stations operational, they would return $54M over the next 10 years.

The rotted out power stations were completed, ran for a couple of years - then the adjoining cooling towers collapsed, making it necessary to scrap the "reconditioned" power stations.

The endless money splurge only ended when it became obvious to Blind Freddy, that another $300M would be required to keep on with reconditioning the clapped out wrecks of power stations, and that would only mean more embarrassment for the Libs, on top of the enduring embarrassment of already writing off $300M of taxpayers money for no benefit.

This is probably just one of the simpler reasons why the Liberals only hold a total of 2 seats in the W.A. Parliament today (Labor has 53 and the Nats 4), and Mark McGowan the Labor Premier, has a 98% popularity rating. The whole coal power station reconditioning exercise in W.A. under the Libs, was just blatant support of the fossil fuel lobby, and their mates in the major engineering businesses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muja_Power_Station

.....totally bummed out and unable to hop properly, thus slowing them down and improving the bunny kill.  This huge increase in fortune led to Turbo increasing funding to his new aircraft manufacturing venture, so that he could go further out to the edge of Space, to better Bransons record.

"If I'm going into Space, I not only want to go further out into it, than any other squillionaire, I want to be able to do it in great comfort," announced Turbo.

As a result of his finding out that bunny fur is very warm and cuddly, and makes great Akubra hats - as well as rabbit skin bed covers, Turbo started investigating how he could line his new space vehicle with rabbit skin and fur felt, to greatly improve the interior comfort levels.

"It's not just the comfort levels, either", Turbo remarked. "It's the fact that using rabbit materials right throughout the entire space vehicle, will give the craft a major jump start off the ground! - and this extra push will.....

......big toe on his left foot. The reason Turbo's big toe is shaped like that, is because he has spent a considerable amount of time during his working life, kicking ar.....

The Collgar Wind Farm in W.A.'s wheatbelt is privately owned, and has an expected life span of 30 years. It provides substantial economic benefits to W.A. and the entire project was scrutinised in great detail by Parliamentarians before it was approved.

The local energy supplier purchases the entire output of Collgar, and the private investors in Collgar (which includes a superannuation fund) are receiving a satisfactory rate of return on their investment.

Wind and solar are providing a substantial percentage of W.A.'s energy requirements, and one of the benefits of solar and wind is that the power generation can be located close to the end-users, thus reducing the need for huge, costly, long-distance transmission lines. There may be a sizeable cost in erecting wind farm turbines, but the cost of huge transmission line towers is also massive.

https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/commit.nsf/(Report+Lookup+by+Com+ID)/23378607256ABC9548257959000B89E7/$file/22782129.pdf

......mpit. Which is very good advice, if you don't wish to be on the receiving end of a large camel foot in the face (and did you know camels can kick out in any direction, easily? - unlike cattle and horses, who can only kick out rearwards. OT's father just happened to own a camel team, which means OT knows mostly all there is to know, about camels. Just waving a crank handle near a camel is a foolhardy thing to do, but we all know Cappy is pretty gung-ho).

Meantimes, the team of Turbine Aviation, Vaccine, Cat Supply, Food Delivery, and Curry Production Industries, (TAVCSFDCPI) were all very busy in their surplus spare time during the lockdown, driven by Turbo to produce a new aviation product, that was green, had low energy requirements, used minimal manufactured products in its construction, could travel at great height (to Outer Space, even), and could circle the Earth if needed, in just a few days.

Turbo had seen the recent news of another squillionaire being sent into the edge of Outer Space, and he was jealous. But he needed to develop something that didn't involve rockets, as rockets have a nasty tendency to go, "BANG!", right at the wrong moment - or to fall back to Earth, before they could get high enough to get out of the effects of Gravity.

It's not well known, but Turbo has long had a deep-seated fear of rockets, ever since that fateful Guy Fawkes bonfire night on Nov 5, 1955, when a large rocket accidentally exploded right next to him, and he sh......

(And dear NES readers, here we have the TAVCSFDCPI teams, initial commendable design result, which is based on tried and true, proven principles. The product decoration was provided by another of Turbine Industries companies, which specialises in flowery and artistic designs, based on art works of the 16th Century......)

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Renewable energy is going gangbusters in the mining industry in W.A. Up to recently, these setups were subsidised, but the latest one at Fraser Range, East of Norseman is viable without subsidies.

Batteries are still too expensive to be viable, particularly seeing as their storage ability is limited to a relatively short period.

Diesel or NG or coal-powered electricity is still needed for primary power, but renewables provide a way to reduce costs and reduce 100% reliance on distant, fossil-fuel, major power stations.

A major part of the move to renewables is developing energy input control programmes that provide better integration of the various energy sources.

https://www.miningpeople.com.au/news/how-the-mining-industry-is-using-solar-power

https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2019/12/18/unique-hybrid-solar-pv-installation-now-powering-wa-mine/

It should've been a $40,000 fine for each of that mob. They're probably laughing at a piddly $4000 fine, it's only small change to people who hire boats that cost $18,000 a day.

....the important protocol involves pulling the crank handle out of the boot (because all '62 Hillman Minxes came with a crankhandle), inserting it into the crank handle hole, then turning to the correct compass bearing, so he exactly faces Ryton-on-Dunsmore.

Once aligned with Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Cappy kneels in front of the Hillman, and prays multiple prayers to the metallic-bodied Gods of Rootes, beseeching them to look on him favourably, when he attempts to start the Hillman, using the crank handle.

He uses the crank handle, because it is protocol that all British cars of the 1950's and 1960's be started with a crank handle. This is to protect and save the fragile Lucas electrics from emitting Smoke - as everyone knows, once the factory-contained Smoke is lost from Lucas electrics, it requires the car owner to go buy more Lucas Smoke.

As Cappy is known to be frugal with his money, thanks to his Scottish ancestry, he prefers not to spend his money on what he regards as useless things - such as Lucas Smoke.

As a result of having lost the contained Smoke from the Hillmans Lucas electrics quite some time ago, (as a direct result of trying to drive too far in the dark), Cappy now has to resort to the crank handle protocol, which leaves him with.......

(and here we have a photo of Lucas Smoke, for those who have little knowledge of British Electrical Things) ...

.....and the one in Qld could actually cover the N.T. as well! But when Turbo rang up Gladys Beserklian and Annastasia PalaceChook, he got a sharp rebuff from both.

Gladys said, "We're not getting involved in the delivery of mystery curries! It's bad enough that we've got stuck with trying to deliver mystery vaccines! They're just as big a mystery, as Turbos Soup Kitchen food - because no-one knows what they're getting, no-one knows when they're getting it - and it's a complete mystery where the vaccines actually are!"

"I'm not getting any!" interrupted Cappy. "We are actually talking about curries and vaccines here!", remonstrated Turbo. "It's all about the delivery!"

"That's what every comedian tells me!" snorted OT. "What you really need is aerial delivery! (long overdue avref). And to do fast aerial deliveries, you need a big group of drones!"

"I've got them right here", said Annastasia. "They're called the Qld Public Service! But I'm not sure how they'd go on food deliveries, they'd probably say it wasn't on their job description, and......

....by the North Koreans, who specialise in feeding 5000 people with no more than 2 cats and 5 chapatis as the basis of the 5000 feeds.

However, there came the day when there was a shortfall in deliveries, because Turbo insisted on employing Indians for food delivery drivers - and as we all well know, Indians can never find the correct address when they have a delivery to do.

This led to major revolt from about 1000 starving customers, who made the phone lines run hot at Turbo Soup Kitchens, wanting to know where their mystery curries were - as their exact whereabouts, truly was a mystery.

OT heard the rumbles of discontent from W.A. and called up Turbo, who was starting to tear his hair out over the non-delivery of so many of his mystery meals (the reason he's a little thin on top today).

"Turbo, ol' mate, ol' buddy!", said OT. "I hear you're having problems with the smooth running of your new food business! You really need someone to take over the management of that, someone with real food business skills and experience - and I reckon I know just who that bloke is!"

"Give me his number!" exclaimed Turbo in exasperation. "First off, I need to sack about a 1000 Indians, then I need to.......

The overwhelmingly major percentage of mid-air crashes are all within a relatively short distance from airfields, as aircraft converge to, or diverge from, that all-important feature they must all use.

Energy technologies are highly fractured at present and no-one can see a clear path to one overwhelmingly common energy source.

Vast sums of money are being poured into competing energy source programmes, and nowhere is this more evident than in Japan, where the Govt has decided that hydrogen has a large part to play as a future energy source. 

However, the Japanese still have yet to determine a satisfactory and economic source of "clean" hydrogen. They are currently pouring huge sums of money into a planned programme of collecting hydrogen from brown coal in Victoria, transporting it by road to the port, then shipping it in a frozen state to Japan, in a dedicated hydrogen gas carrier. It is then distributed throughout Japan - but that last distribution process, is still a bit opaque.

The Japanese plan to utilise carbon capture from the coal treatment process by injecting CO² into a deep aquifer off the Australian coast. The whole process looks extremely dubious to me, and I suspect the Japanese are only planning for this hydrogen source for a short time, until they find a "greener" source from solar-produced hydrogen, or by extraction from methane hydrates.

The extraction of hydrogen from methane hydrates could be carried out by the injection of surplus CO², thus solving two problems in the one exercise. But the methane hydrate extraction process still has a long way to go, to be a stable, environmentally-satisfactory, and proven process.

Don't be surprised by the fact that the Japanese will pour trillions of yen of Govt money into long-term research and loss-making support for hydrogen, over a long period of time - a decade or more. They are intent on being independent from Middle Eastern oil and OPEC.

At the end of the day, ammonia poses a more economic and readily available form of a hydrogen source, it can be sourced from the vast reserves of natural gas that Australia owns and produces. But the holy grail is cheap and green hydrogen produced from solar - and the Northern outback areas of Australia are highly suited for this style of hydrogen production.

In the long term, I personally have doubts about the safety and viability of hydrogen as a power source. Just one major H² disaster would kill the fledgling H² industry.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/The-Big-Story/Be-water-Japan-s-big-lonely-bet-on-hydrogen

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/japan-hydrogen-energy-carbon/2021/04/13/0dd68e4e-9229-11eb-aadc-af78701a30ca_story.html

......it won't be long before Victoria announces secession from the rest of Australia". Dan announced, "W.A. has tried to do it several times, but we over-rode them! But seeing as we have the numbers to pull it off, we will secede from the rest of Australia, and NSW and their people will become a foreign country, on a par and on a standing with Takijistan!"

Turbo was busily writing up the secession details when Ratty rang. "What's this rubbish about Victoria seceding and becoming an independent country?", he said.

"It's true! - and I'm writing up the legislative details for Dan as we speak. Because I have had so much experience on VCAT, he decided I was the best person to reject the whole of Australia! - as Civil and Administrative Tribunals are excellent at rejecting anything and everything put before them!"

"This is outrageous!", said Ratty. "Does this mean I'll now need a passport just to visit you?"

"Yes, you will", said Turbo. "In fact, you will not only need a passport, you will need proof you've been vaccinated, proof you don't have mange, proof you are not carrying any ticks or fleas, and that you're not an animal threatened with extinction!"

"Well the last bit is easy", said Ratty. "But the other requirements are just plain onerous and overbearing, and makes Victoria look like an extension of Jinpings rules and......

.....long reach and ability to operate like Mossad, to take out offending leaders, who fail to deliver. Dan gulped. "He wouldn't dare! - not here in Australia! Besides, he couldn't penetrate my cordon of minders, they're in the dozens!"

"Never underestimate the ability of West Australians!", said Mark menacingly. "After all, we have all the gold, all the iron ore, and all the strategic minerals, on this side. Qld might have a bit of coal, but that's going out of fashion like last years haircut, too!"

Dan replied, "But we've got all the manufacturing and food production here! Plus we have all the biggest and best footballers, and the Mecca of football stadiums!"

"Football will get you nowhere when the chips are down and you haven't delivered!", said OT grimly. Just remember what happened to........