First!

Second.

Rainy start to the month in the Styx.

Spiny Norman said:

First!

Hmm…forgot it was month changeover.

Good morning Holidayers. Presently 2 degrees at the back door. The wind seems to have quietened down. It’s still dark, little bit of horizon light. Our forecast for today is for a showery 13 degrees

I’m about to clean out the ash from the woodheater and light it again. Always a bit more challenging to light after the ash is removed.

did breakfasted, chilly morn, damp, some fog, early birds chirpy

Good morning everybody.

It’s a wet start to August here, too. Calm, but overcast and raining lightly; 16.5°C. Forecast —-> 21°C. Unless the sun comes out, it’s not likely to get to that.

buffy said:

I’m about to clean out the ash from the woodheater and light it again. Always a bit more challenging to light after the ash is removed.

I find that surprising.

Whenever i clean the ash from our woodheater, i have no trouble with lighting it the next time.

Build a little lattice-work stack of split pine kindling. Push a couple of bits of firelighter under the stack. Apply flame to firelighters. Et voila!, a fire!.

captain_spalding said:

buffy said:

I’m about to clean out the ash from the woodheater and light it again. Always a bit more challenging to light after the ash is removed.

I find that surprising.

Whenever i clean the ash from our woodheater, i have no trouble with lighting it the next time.

Build a little lattice-work stack of split pine kindling. Push a couple of bits of firelighter under the stack. Apply flame to firelighters. Et voila!, a fire!.

^ who’s a good boy scout then. ;)

roughbarked said:

captain_spalding said:

buffy said:

I’m about to clean out the ash from the woodheater and light it again. Always a bit more challenging to light after the ash is removed.

I find that surprising.

Whenever i clean the ash from our woodheater, i have no trouble with lighting it the next time.

Build a little lattice-work stack of split pine kindling. Push a couple of bits of firelighter under the stack. Apply flame to firelighters. Et voila!, a fire!.

^ who’s a good boy scout then. ;)

Only ever went to one Scouts session. Looked like a disorganised shitfight to me, so i never went back.

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

captain_spalding said:

I find that surprising.

Whenever i clean the ash from our woodheater, i have no trouble with lighting it the next time.

Build a little lattice-work stack of split pine kindling. Push a couple of bits of firelighter under the stack. Apply flame to firelighters. Et voila!, a fire!.

^ who’s a good boy scout then. ;)

Only ever went to one Scouts session. Looked like a disorganised shitfight to me, so i never went back.

:) Luckily, my parents didn’t sened me there.

dazvoz.com/Holiday-Forum-List-04.html

SCIENCE said:

What am I looking at?

dv said:

dazvoz.com/Holiday-Forum-List-04.html

ta

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/jul/31/nichelle-nichols-lt-uhura-star-trek-dies

Nichelle Nichols has died

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

What am I looking at?

Gorgon LNG Plant, according to Google Lens.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-24/fossil-fuel-emissions-worse-than-estimates-when-approved/100855338

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

What am I looking at?

Looks like a gas plant?

“A traveller from Indonesia has been fined thousands of dollars for sneaking two beef sausage McMuffins and a ham croissant into Australia.”

————————-
Idiot.
————————-

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-01/nt-indonesia-fine-foot-mouth-disease/101286948

Michael V said:

“A traveller from Indonesia has been fined thousands of dollars for sneaking two beef sausage McMuffins and a ham croissant into Australia.”

————————-
Idiot.
————————-

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-01/nt-indonesia-fine-foot-mouth-disease/101286948

What makes them think they can’t get better food here than what they had there?

captain_spalding said:

buffy said:

I’m about to clean out the ash from the woodheater and light it again. Always a bit more challenging to light after the ash is removed.

I find that surprising.

Whenever i clean the ash from our woodheater, i have no trouble with lighting it the next time.

Build a little lattice-work stack of split pine kindling. Push a couple of bits of firelighter under the stack. Apply flame to firelighters. Et voila!, a fire!.

I don’t use firelighters. And I’m out of pine/native pine splits at the moment. But I do have black wattle and blackwood wattle that I can make kindling out of. As it happened, it wasn’t too bad this time. I’m presently tearing up cardboard record cards and scrunching up letters from specialists for fire starting. Usually I shred the “deleted” records, but they work quite well for firelighting.

roughbarked said:

captain_spalding said:

buffy said:

I’m about to clean out the ash from the woodheater and light it again. Always a bit more challenging to light after the ash is removed.

I find that surprising.

Whenever i clean the ash from our woodheater, i have no trouble with lighting it the next time.

Build a little lattice-work stack of split pine kindling. Push a couple of bits of firelighter under the stack. Apply flame to firelighters. Et voila!, a fire!.

^ who’s a good boy scout then. ;)

I usually have a small latticework with a teepee over the top of twigs from the gumtrees in the backyard. I’ve also got nice shreddy stringybark bark to use too.

dv said:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/jul/31/nichelle-nichols-lt-uhura-star-trek-dies

Nichelle Nichols has died

Well, fuck. :(

Black Science Dude did a podcast interview with her a few years back, and she came across as a kind person who resisted the Star Trek role but then just made the best of the life it presented her.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

What am I looking at?

Looks like a gas plant?

Yeah but where and why is SCIENCE posting it?

Michael V said:

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

What am I looking at?

Gorgon LNG Plant, according to Google Lens.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-24/fossil-fuel-emissions-worse-than-estimates-when-approved/100855338

Cheers

dv said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

What am I looking at?

Looks like a gas plant?

Yeah but where and why is SCIENCE posting it?

https://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/posts/1915283/

dv said:

Michael V said:

dv said:

What am I looking at?

Gorgon LNG Plant, according to Google Lens.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-24/fossil-fuel-emissions-worse-than-estimates-when-approved/100855338

Cheers

I see you found it.

One for Bill:

https://www.srviral.com/content/2022/07/92-587.mp4

dv said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

What am I looking at?

Looks like a gas plant?

Yeah but where and why is SCIENCE posting it?

hey as SCIENCE we still have a sense SCIENCE of aesthetics you know, the scale of these plants is quite something to see

SCIENCE said:

dv said:

roughbarked said:

Looks like a gas plant?

Yeah but where and why is SCIENCE posting it?

hey as SCIENCE we still have a sense SCIENCE of aesthetics you know, the scale of these plants is quite something to see

Show such things to those who have never seen them?

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

What am I looking at?

gorgon gas plant. NW WA.

dv said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

What am I looking at?

Looks like a gas plant?

Yeah but where and why is SCIENCE posting it?

maybe ties in with his post about eastern gas being exported that was in the Electric thread.

ChrispenEvan said:

dv said:

roughbarked said:

Looks like a gas plant?

Yeah but where and why is SCIENCE posting it?

maybe ties in with his post about eastern gas being exported that was in the Electric thread.

Working out how his mind ticks over?

roughbarked said:

ChrispenEvan said:

dv said:

Yeah but where and why is SCIENCE posting it?

maybe ties in with his post about eastern gas being exported that was in the Electric thread.

Working out how his mind ticks over?

Life is too short to waste time on such endeavours.

I is remembering one very miserable cold wet spell and the wood heater low on fuel.. no dry fuel left at all. Kept it going by placing damp wood on a rack on top of the heater to dry before shoving it in..

Earth records shortest day, putting clocks (slightly) out of time
By Sarah Knapton
August 1, 2022 — 8.00am

London: If it feels like there is never enough time in the day, there may be a reason.

Earth had its shortest day since records began last month, with 1.59 milliseconds shaved off the usual 24 hour spin on June 29 – raising the prospect that a negative leap second may soon be needed to keep clocks matched up with the heavens.

Usually, Earth’s average rotational speed decreases slightly over time and timekeepers have been forced to add 27 leap seconds to atomic time since the 1970s as the planet slows.

But since 2020, the phenomenon has reversed with records being frequently broken over the last two years. The previous fastest day was -1.47 milliseconds under 24 hours on July 19 2020 and it was almost broken again on July 26, when the day was -1.50 milliseconds shorter. While the effect is too small to be noticeable by humans, it can accumulate over time, potentially impacting modern satellite communication and navigation systems which rely on time being consistent with the conventional positions of the Sun, Moon and stars.

It means that it may soon be necessary to remove time, adding a negative leap second, and speeding up global clocks for the first time ever.

Scientists have been left scratching their heads about the cause, although experts have suggested that a phenomenon known as the “Chandler Wobble” may be having an impact. The speed of the Earth’s rotation varies constantly because of the complex motion of its molten core, oceans and atmosphere, as well as the effect of celestial bodies such as the Moon.

The friction of the tides and the change in distance between the Earth and the Moon all make for daily variations in the speed the planet rotates on its axis. The Chandler Wobble is the change in the spin of the Earth on its axis and it normally causes Earth’s rotation to increase, meaning it takes longer to complete a turn. But in recent years the spin has gotten less wobbly.

Dr Leonid Zotov, of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute, believes this lack of wobble may be behind the speedier days. He will present the theory next week at the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society annual meeting.

“The normal amplitude of the Chandler Wobble is about three to four metres at Earth’s surface, but from 2017 to 2020 it disappeared,” Dr Leonid Zotov told the website Timeanddate.

‘Detecting the most interesting thing’: NASA looks to use satellites to search for aliens
In the early 2000s, the amplitude of the Chandler wobble started to decrease and in 2017-2020 reached a historic minimum just as the length of day began to shorten. Other factors that can have an impact include snow building on the mountains in the Northern Hemisphere and then melting.

Global warming is also expected to have an effect by melting ice and snow at higher elevations, causing the Earth to spin faster, but it’s considered to be a relatively small contribution.

Changes to the length of a standard day were only discovered after highly accurate atomic clocks were developed in the 1960s and compared to fixed stars in the sky. The last leap second was added on New Year’s Eve 2016, when clocks around the world paused for a second to allow the Earth’s rotation to catch up. Then, British Telecom’s speaking clock added a second’s pause before its third pip while BBC Radio 4 inserted an extra pip to its 1am bulletin.

The International Earth Rotation Service, based in Paris, monitors the planet’s rotation and informs countries when leap seconds must be added or taken away six months in advance.

However the leap second could be abolished entirely next year, when the World Radiocommunication Conference will decide whether to rely completely on atomic time.

Britain is opposed to the move because it would sever the link with solar time forever. Some experts believe the need for a negative leap second might increase pressure on moving to atomic time.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/earth-records-shortest-day-putting-clocks-slightly-out-of-time-20220801-p5b64i.html

Ian said:

I is remembering one very miserable cold wet spell and the wood heater low on fuel.. no dry fuel left at all. Kept it going by placing damp wood on a rack on top of the heater to dry before shoving it in..

I’ve put it on the hearth to dry before today.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Earth records shortest day, putting clocks (slightly) out of time
By Sarah Knapton
August 1, 2022 — 8.00am

London: If it feels like there is never enough time in the day, there may be a reason.

Earth had its shortest day since records began last month, with 1.59 milliseconds shaved off the usual 24 hour spin on June 29 – raising the prospect that a negative leap second may soon be needed to keep clocks matched up with the heavens.

Usually, Earth’s average rotational speed decreases slightly over time and timekeepers have been forced to add 27 leap seconds to atomic time since the 1970s as the planet slows.

But since 2020, the phenomenon has reversed with records being frequently broken over the last two years. The previous fastest day was -1.47 milliseconds under 24 hours on July 19 2020 and it was almost broken again on July 26, when the day was -1.50 milliseconds shorter. While the effect is too small to be noticeable by humans, it can accumulate over time, potentially impacting modern satellite communication and navigation systems which rely on time being consistent with the conventional positions of the Sun, Moon and stars.

It means that it may soon be necessary to remove time, adding a negative leap second, and speeding up global clocks for the first time ever.

Scientists have been left scratching their heads about the cause, although experts have suggested that a phenomenon known as the “Chandler Wobble” may be having an impact. The speed of the Earth’s rotation varies constantly because of the complex motion of its molten core, oceans and atmosphere, as well as the effect of celestial bodies such as the Moon.

The friction of the tides and the change in distance between the Earth and the Moon all make for daily variations in the speed the planet rotates on its axis. The Chandler Wobble is the change in the spin of the Earth on its axis and it normally causes Earth’s rotation to increase, meaning it takes longer to complete a turn. But in recent years the spin has gotten less wobbly.

Dr Leonid Zotov, of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute, believes this lack of wobble may be behind the speedier days. He will present the theory next week at the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society annual meeting.

“The normal amplitude of the Chandler Wobble is about three to four metres at Earth’s surface, but from 2017 to 2020 it disappeared,” Dr Leonid Zotov told the website Timeanddate.

‘Detecting the most interesting thing’: NASA looks to use satellites to search for aliens
In the early 2000s, the amplitude of the Chandler wobble started to decrease and in 2017-2020 reached a historic minimum just as the length of day began to shorten. Other factors that can have an impact include snow building on the mountains in the Northern Hemisphere and then melting.

Global warming is also expected to have an effect by melting ice and snow at higher elevations, causing the Earth to spin faster, but it’s considered to be a relatively small contribution.

Changes to the length of a standard day were only discovered after highly accurate atomic clocks were developed in the 1960s and compared to fixed stars in the sky. The last leap second was added on New Year’s Eve 2016, when clocks around the world paused for a second to allow the Earth’s rotation to catch up. Then, British Telecom’s speaking clock added a second’s pause before its third pip while BBC Radio 4 inserted an extra pip to its 1am bulletin.

The International Earth Rotation Service, based in Paris, monitors the planet’s rotation and informs countries when leap seconds must be added or taken away six months in advance.

However the leap second could be abolished entirely next year, when the World Radiocommunication Conference will decide whether to rely completely on atomic time.

Britain is opposed to the move because it would sever the link with solar time forever. Some experts believe the need for a negative leap second might increase pressure on moving to atomic time.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/earth-records-shortest-day-putting-clocks-slightly-out-of-time-20220801-p5b64i.html

Weird

Happy birthday Boris

buffy said:

roughbarked said:

ChrispenEvan said:

maybe ties in with his post about eastern gas being exported that was in the Electric thread.

Working out how his mind ticks over?

Life is too short to waste time on such endeavours.

He sure is enigmatic

Arts said:

Happy birthday Boris

Thank you Arts. Working today but driving people (round the bend) is pretty easy.

dv said:

buffy said:

roughbarked said:

Working out how his mind ticks over?

Life is too short to waste time on such endeavours.

He sure is enigmatic

inscrutable I think fits better. considering.

Greetings
Another week

buffy said:

roughbarked said:

ChrispenEvan said:

maybe ties in with his post about eastern gas being exported that was in the Electric thread.

Working out how his mind ticks over?

Life is too short to waste time on such endeavours.

aye.

ChrispenEvan said:

Arts said:

Happy birthday Boris

Thank you Arts. Working today but driving people (round the bend) is pretty easy.

is this the real birthday eh?

HB Boris. :)

Cymek said:

Greetings
Another week

Monday Monday ..

https://youtu.be/X3fvljQYhGE

Charles Cornell on the Chord that Saved Star Wars.

Nnneeerrrrrd! But his enthusiasm is infectious.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Earth records shortest day, putting clocks (slightly) out of time
By Sarah Knapton
August 1, 2022 — 8.00am

London: If it feels like there is never enough time in the day, there may be a reason.

Earth had its shortest day since records began last month, with 1.59 milliseconds shaved off the usual 24 hour spin on June 29 – raising the prospect that a negative leap second may soon be needed to keep clocks matched up with the heavens.

….snip….

However the leap second could be abolished entirely next year, when the World Radiocommunication Conference will decide whether to rely completely on atomic time.

Britain is opposed to the move because it would sever the link with solar time forever. Some experts believe the need for a negative leap second might increase pressure on moving to atomic time.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/earth-records-shortest-day-putting-clocks-slightly-out-of-time-20220801-p5b64i.html

Thanks.

I won’t bother re-setting my clocks, though.

Cymek said:

Greetings
Another week

G’day mate.
Just got here myself.

I go have a session with mr whipper now, might be having a crisis of purpose, grass growing up around it, could be worrying if it takes too long I may not even be able to find mr whipper

imagine that, being a whipper, grass growing up around, getting lost in the grass, the torture for a whipper that would be

Michael V said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Earth records shortest day, putting clocks (slightly) out of time
By Sarah Knapton
August 1, 2022 — 8.00am

London: If it feels like there is never enough time in the day, there may be a reason.

Earth had its shortest day since records began last month, with 1.59 milliseconds shaved off the usual 24 hour spin on June 29 – raising the prospect that a negative leap second may soon be needed to keep clocks matched up with the heavens.

….snip….

However the leap second could be abolished entirely next year, when the World Radiocommunication Conference will decide whether to rely completely on atomic time.

Britain is opposed to the move because it would sever the link with solar time forever. Some experts believe the need for a negative leap second might increase pressure on moving to atomic time.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/earth-records-shortest-day-putting-clocks-slightly-out-of-time-20220801-p5b64i.html

Thanks.

I won’t bother re-setting my clocks, though.

I’ll have to adjust the grains of sand in my hourglass.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/01/it-felt-insulting-welfare-recipients-sent-to-body-language-courses-as-job-agencies-profit

Same old

Morning Pilgrims.
Slept in a bit today, I was up late last night watching the womens snatch.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/2022/07/31/asteroid-revolutionise-electronics/

Link

Peak Warming Man said:

Morning Pilgrims.
Slept in a bit today, I was up late last night watching the womens snatch.

Nope. Not with a barge pole.

ChrispenEvan said:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/2022/07/31/asteroid-revolutionise-electronics/

Link

‘‘Sounds a bit of an overreach to me,’’ Professor McKenzie said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-01/commonwealth-games-cyclists-spectators-injured-in-crash/101287096

Father of the year manages to save himself by using his daughter as a shield.

There’s going to be a few interesting conversations at home after that.

SCIENCE said:

ChrispenEvan said:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/2022/07/31/asteroid-revolutionise-electronics/

Link

‘‘Sounds a bit of an overreach to me,’’ Professor McKenzie said.

The voice of reason :)

What’s the Kyle Chalmers controversy about?``

Peak Warming Man said:

What’s the Kyle Chalmers controversy about?``

Ex-girlfriend and her new partner are all on the swim-team and the media reckons there’s tension.

Peak Warming Man said:

What’s the Kyle Chalmers controversy about?``

FIHOI

Peak Warming Man said:

What’s the Kyle Chalmers controversy about?``

Who’s shaggin’ who…… or not shaggin’ who, whatever the case may be.

And anything that will advance his multi-disciplinary career.

Woodie said:

Peak Warming Man said:

What’s the Kyle Chalmers controversy about?``

Who’s shaggin’ who…… or not shaggin’ who, whatever the case may be.

And anything that will advance his multi-disciplinary career.

‘We’re just good friends.’

local pub closed, staff got covid

joy of patrons spitting on during animated conversation, probably

>>local pub closed

It’s not right.

Peak Warming Man said:

>>local pub closed

It’s not right.

Questions in the House…

Woodie said:

Peak Warming Man said:

What’s the Kyle Chalmers controversy about?``

Who’s shaggin’ who…… or not shaggin’ who, whatever the case may be.

And anything that will advance his multi-disciplinary career.

OK found it, it’s something nothing.
It’s over now folks, move along, nothing to see here, go back to your homes.

Peak Warming Man said:

>>local pub closed

It’s not right.

a shut pub with plenty beer, consider the torment if you had developed an enhanced cellular affinity for whatever

Lunch-: Ham of the bone, tomato. cucumber on fresh baked Caucasian bread, cuppa.
Over.

transition said:

local pub closed, staff got covid

joy of patrons spitting on during animated conversation, probably

must’ve been the MSMing

transition said:

local pub closed, staff got covid

joy of patrons spitting on during animated conversation, probably

It’s Monday. More of a problem for Friday and Saturday.

Peak Warming Man said:

Lunch-: Ham of the bone, tomato. cucumber on fresh baked Caucasian bread, cuppa.
Over.

You are more of a toff than me. I et some fried slices of Stras with a fried egg. Large glass of cold Milo.

I’m going to siesta today. I got up about 6.30am and I’m flagging a bit now. There has, however, been things achieved. Some wood split and stacked. Some paperwork shredded. Some ironing done. Renewals done for Archery Australia and Fungimap. I do still want to do some fine axe splitting of kindling, but I can do that later.

totally necessary metrics

“That 400m depth represents almost six Wrest Point Casinos stacked on top of each other, or three Sydney Harbour Bridges,” said Ms Smart.

SCIENCE said:

totally necessary metrics

“That 400m depth represents almost six Wrest Point Casinos stacked on top of each other, or three Sydney Harbour Bridges,” said Ms Smart.

Sydarbs for volume. Sydarbidges for depth.

Consistency

SCIENCE said:

totally necessary metrics

“That 400m depth represents almost six Wrest Point Casinos stacked on top of each other, or three Sydney Harbour Bridges,” said Ms Smart.

That 400m depth represents the maximum distance you can look for a toilet before urinating on the street when you are blind drunk

SCIENCE said:

totally necessary metrics

“That 400m depth represents almost six Wrest Point Casinos stacked on top of each other, or three Sydney Harbour Bridges,” said Ms Smart.

I mean I suppose that gives us some idea of the dimensions of those objects.

“The body of a man who exited an aircraft mid-air before it made an emergency landing on Friday near Raleigh in North Carolina has been recovered, authorities said.
In a statement the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that around 2.40pm local time, a twin-engine CASA CN-212 Aviocar landed in the grass at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
An airport spokesperson said that the pilot of the plane was found alone in the aircraft and was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
The plane’s co-pilot Charles Hew Crooks, 23, who was not wearing a parachute, did not survive the fall and was found in the backyard of a Fuquay-Varina resident, reported WRAL-TV.”

There could be more to this story and Charles’ premature ejection may have something to do with it.

Ian said:

SCIENCE said:

totally necessary metrics

“That 400m depth represents almost six Wrest Point Casinos stacked on top of each other, or three Sydney Harbour Bridges,” said Ms Smart.

Sydarbs for volume. Sydarbidges for depth.

Consistency

fair we mean being Tasmania and all it’s completely crazy they didn’t just measure it in Treasury Casino buildings instead

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

totally necessary metrics

“That 400m depth represents almost six Wrest Point Casinos stacked on top of each other, or three Sydney Harbour Bridges,” said Ms Smart.

I mean I suppose that gives us some idea of the dimensions of those objects.

Pretty bloody rough wrt SHB.. 134 metres above mean sea level.

Ms Smart.. pfft

..

captain_spalding said:

buffy said:

I’m about to clean out the ash from the woodheater and light it again. Always a bit more challenging to light after the ash is removed.

I find that surprising.

Whenever i clean the ash from our woodheater, i have no trouble with lighting it the next time.

Build a little lattice-work stack of split pine kindling. Push a couple of bits of firelighter under the stack. Apply flame to firelighters. Et voila!, a fire!.

I always leave a little bit of ash in the box.

Peak Warming Man said:

“The body of a man who exited an aircraft mid-air before it made an emergency landing on Friday near Raleigh in North Carolina has been recovered, authorities said.
In a statement the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that around 2.40pm local time, a twin-engine CASA CN-212 Aviocar landed in the grass at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
An airport spokesperson said that the pilot of the plane was found alone in the aircraft and was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
The plane’s co-pilot Charles Hew Crooks, 23, who was not wearing a parachute, did not survive the fall and was found in the backyard of a Fuquay-Varina resident, reported WRAL-TV.”

There could be more to this story and Charles’ premature ejection may have something to do with it.

They don’t have ejection seats. They’re twin engine turboprop planes of Spanish design, built in Spain and Indonesia. They have a rear ramp, similar to Hercules and Caribou aircraft.

It may have been that the dead chap didn’t much rate the chances of surviving a crash landing, and elected to go out the back door at low altitude.

Peak Warming Man said:

“The body of a man who exited an aircraft mid-air before it made an emergency landing on Friday near Raleigh in North Carolina has been recovered, authorities said.
In a statement the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that around 2.40pm local time, a twin-engine CASA CN-212 Aviocar landed in the grass at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
An airport spokesperson said that the pilot of the plane was found alone in the aircraft and was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
The plane’s co-pilot Charles Hew Crooks, 23, who was not wearing a parachute, did not survive the fall and was found in the backyard of a Fuquay-Varina resident, reported WRAL-TV.”

There could be more to this story and Charles’ premature ejection may have something to do with it.

https://youtu.be/oOrC8BsSq2U

Scuttlebutt (comments) suggest he may have gone to the rear of the aircraft to check on the missing wheel and had fallen out.

“A third piece of space junk has been found in the NSW Snowy Mountains, believed to be linked to a SpaceX craft.
Two other pieces of debris were recently found by farmers at neighbouring properties in Numbla Vale, after a loud bang was heard in the region on July 9.
The sonic boom was believed to be caused by the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which was launched in November 2020, re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.”

Musk is just irresponsible. shakes fist.

I just watched a friendly jordies vid about the NSW govt shutting down fire stations. they are very expensive you know.

Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

A 52.8 billion light years tall mecha.
That would seem to be a tad unwieldy for any real use.

Peak Warming Man said:

“A third piece of space junk has been found in the NSW Snowy Mountains, believed to be linked to a SpaceX craft.
Two other pieces of debris were recently found by farmers at neighbouring properties in Numbla Vale, after a loud bang was heard in the region on July 9.
The sonic boom was believed to be caused by the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which was launched in November 2020, re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.”

Musk is just irresponsible. shakes fist.

Tell that to sibeen.

Lovely day here, 14 degrees, 5 degrees apparent. Wind at 55, gusting to 85, and warnings of over 105kmh.

Kingy said:

Lovely day here, 14 degrees, 5 degrees apparent. Wind at 55, gusting to 85, and warnings of over 105kmh.

Beautiful.

Kingy said:

Lovely day here, 14 degrees, 5 degrees apparent. Wind at 55, gusting to 85, and warnings of over 105kmh.

I was cold. I checked the BOM. It said it was snowing down to 800m. It is only raining here at 450m. I decided it was the right thing to light the fire early.

I think there is only one survivor now.

Peak Warming Man said:

I think there is only one survivor now.

Three. Shatner, Koenig, and Takei.

Peak Warming Man said:

I think there is only one survivor now.

3 unless I’ve missed some news

Peak Warming Man said:

I think there is only one survivor now.

George is still going.

Took a few goes to get the refuelling boom into the socket.

Spiny Norman said:

Took a few goes to get the refuelling boom into the socket.

It cant be that canard?

Fish and chips for tea tonight, nice piece of snapper I think.

Spiny Norman said:

Took a few goes to get the refuelling boom into the socket.

Dock the paint from their wages.

sarahs mum said:

Kingy said:

Lovely day here, 14 degrees, 5 degrees apparent. Wind at 55, gusting to 85, and warnings of over 105kmh.

I was cold. I checked the BOM. It said it was snowing down to 800m. It is only raining here at 450m. I decided it was the right thing to light the fire early.

My sleeping’s doing its rounds so I spent the day in bed.

Be doing at least some work in the studio tonight, with a heater in there.

Peak Warming Man said:

Fish and chips for tea tonight, nice piece of snapper I think.

Nachos here.

Peak Warming Man said:

Spiny Norman said:

Took a few goes to get the refuelling boom into the socket.

It cant be that canard?

Clever.

:)

sarahs mum said:

captain_spalding said:

buffy said:

I’m about to clean out the ash from the woodheater and light it again. Always a bit more challenging to light after the ash is removed.

I find that surprising.

Whenever i clean the ash from our woodheater, i have no trouble with lighting it the next time.

Build a little lattice-work stack of split pine kindling. Push a couple of bits of firelighter under the stack. Apply flame to firelighters. Et voila!, a fire!.

I always leave a little bit of ash in the box.

I retained some bits of charcoal. That helps.

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Fish and chips for tea tonight, nice piece of snapper I think.

Nachos here.

Breakfast of scrambled eggs this end, shortly.

Kingy said:

Lovely day here, 14 degrees, 5 degrees apparent. Wind at 55, gusting to 85, and warnings of over 105kmh.

Got up to 26 earlier, and has dropped down to 23 in the last hour or so.

Bubblecar said:

sarahs mum said:

Kingy said:

Lovely day here, 14 degrees, 5 degrees apparent. Wind at 55, gusting to 85, and warnings of over 105kmh.

I was cold. I checked the BOM. It said it was snowing down to 800m. It is only raining here at 450m. I decided it was the right thing to light the fire early.

My sleeping’s doing its rounds so I spent the day in bed.

Be doing at least some work in the studio tonight, with a heater in there.

I’m also sleeping lots throughout daylight hours.

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Fish and chips for tea tonight, nice piece of snapper I think.

Nachos here.

Mr buffy is cooking roast veg and chicken breast stuffed with fetta and apricot, with a cheese sauce. I think there is bacon involved too.

buffy said:

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Fish and chips for tea tonight, nice piece of snapper I think.

Nachos here.

Mr buffy is cooking roast veg and chicken breast stuffed with fetta and apricot, with a cheese sauce. I think there is bacon involved too.

That sounds fancy for a Monday dinner.

Bubblecar said:

buffy said:

dv said:

Nachos here.

Mr buffy is cooking roast veg and chicken breast stuffed with fetta and apricot, with a cheese sauce. I think there is bacon involved too.

That sounds fancy for a Monday dinner.

We don’t really have “weekdays” any more. Time is elastic.

So, it turns out that The Wench has not heard of, let alone seen, the movie “Groundhog Day” so that’s our evening’s viewing sorted.

In other news, I finished the “Catio” and the housebound hunter is enjoying a little semi-freedom watching the world go by. Also popped into Vinnies and found a statue dust collector thingie she really liked which is now sitting on a previously empty spot in a display cupboard. A quick google suggests it was quite the bargain, so happy with that.

Kayaking the sickest urban river in Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxKUwB8VFQ

sarahs mum said:

Kayaking the sickest urban river in Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxKUwB8VFQ

I watched (and linked) to that when it came out, Beau is quite the storyteller and I always look forward to his videos.

Dark Orange said:

sarahs mum said:

Kayaking the sickest urban river in Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxKUwB8VFQ

I watched (and linked) to that when it came out, Beau is quite the storyteller and I always look forward to his videos.

Ah. i missed your post then.

sarahs mum said:

Dark Orange said:

sarahs mum said:

Kayaking the sickest urban river in Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxKUwB8VFQ

I watched (and linked) to that when it came out, Beau is quite the storyteller and I always look forward to his videos.

Ah. i missed your post then.

But worth posting again for those who missed it. :)

Dark Orange said:

So, it turns out that The Wench has not heard of, let alone seen, the movie “Groundhog Day” so that’s our evening’s viewing sorted.

In other news, I finished the “Catio” and the housebound hunter is enjoying a little semi-freedom watching the world go by. Also popped into Vinnies and found a statue dust collector thingie she really liked which is now sitting on a previously empty spot in a display cupboard. A quick google suggests it was quite the bargain, so happy with that.

My brother’s name is Andy McDowall. For some reason he was pissed with a chick with the same name.

Dark Orange said:

sarahs mum said:

Dark Orange said:

I watched (and linked) to that when it came out, Beau is quite the storyteller and I always look forward to his videos.

Ah. i missed your post then.

But worth posting again for those who missed it. :)

So many balls.

sarahs mum said:

Bubblecar said:

sarahs mum said:

I was cold. I checked the BOM. It said it was snowing down to 800m. It is only raining here at 450m. I decided it was the right thing to light the fire early.

My sleeping’s doing its rounds so I spent the day in bed.

Be doing at least some work in the studio tonight, with a heater in there.

I’m also sleeping lots throughout daylight hours.

This weather system is due to reach you on Wednesday. Make sure you have battened down, and brought in some firewood.

A video of a rather clever chap making a machine to solve jigsaw puzzles.

Jigzilla: the automatic puzzle solving machine

Kingy said:

sarahs mum said:

Bubblecar said:

My sleeping’s doing its rounds so I spent the day in bed.

Be doing at least some work in the studio tonight, with a heater in there.

I’m also sleeping lots throughout daylight hours.

This weather system is due to reach you on Wednesday. Make sure you have battened down, and brought in some firewood.

roger that

Kingy said:

sarahs mum said:

Bubblecar said:

My sleeping’s doing its rounds so I spent the day in bed.

Be doing at least some work in the studio tonight, with a heater in there.

I’m also sleeping lots throughout daylight hours.

This weather system is due to reach you on Wednesday. Make sure you have battened down, and brought in some firewood.

Yes, my village forecast for Wednesday is: Cloudy. Very high chance of rain, most likely in the morning and afternoon. Winds northerly 20 to 30 km/h tending northwesterly 35 to 50 km/h in the morning.

Spiny Norman said:

A video of a rather clever chap making a machine to solve jigsaw puzzles.

Jigzilla: the automatic puzzle solving machine

Just finished watching that :)

Dark Orange said:

Spiny Norman said:

A video of a rather clever chap making a machine to solve jigsaw puzzles.

Jigzilla: the automatic puzzle solving machine

Just finished watching that :)

I mean… cool, but this time an talent could have been applied to almost anything else given that the whole reasona jogsaw puzzle exists is for the enjoyment of people who do it. Maybe he can build a robot that watches movies or goes on a picnic for you.

dv said:

Dark Orange said:

Spiny Norman said:

A video of a rather clever chap making a machine to solve jigsaw puzzles.

Jigzilla: the automatic puzzle solving machine

Just finished watching that :)

I mean… cool, but this time an talent could have been applied to almost anything else given that the whole reasona jogsaw puzzle exists is for the enjoyment of people who do it. Maybe he can build a robot that watches movies or goes on a picnic for you.

I could get a robot to drink my scotch.

dv said:

Dark Orange said:

Spiny Norman said:

A video of a rather clever chap making a machine to solve jigsaw puzzles.

Jigzilla: the automatic puzzle solving machine

Just finished watching that :)

I mean… cool, but this time an talent could have been applied to almost anything else given that the whole reasona jogsaw puzzle exists is for the enjoyment of people who do it. Maybe he can build a robot that watches movies or goes on a picnic for you.

LOLOL

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

Dark Orange said:

Just finished watching that :)

I mean… cool, but this time an talent could have been applied to almost anything else given that the whole reasona jogsaw puzzle exists is for the enjoyment of people who do it. Maybe he can build a robot that watches movies or goes on a picnic for you.

I could get a robot to drink my scotch.

…drink my scotch, listen to music and read novels in the living room armchair for me, while I work hard in the studio.

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

Dark Orange said:

Just finished watching that :)

I mean… cool, but this time an talent could have been applied to almost anything else given that the whole reasona jogsaw puzzle exists is for the enjoyment of people who do it. Maybe he can build a robot that watches movies or goes on a picnic for you.

I could get a robot to drink my scotch.

Judging by my spelling in that post, I should have got a robot to do my drinking as well.

*and *reason *jigsaw

Bubblecar said:

Kingy said:

sarahs mum said:

I’m also sleeping lots throughout daylight hours.

This weather system is due to reach you on Wednesday. Make sure you have battened down, and brought in some firewood.

Yes, my village forecast for Wednesday is: Cloudy. Very high chance of rain, most likely in the morning and afternoon. Winds northerly 20 to 30 km/h tending northwesterly 35 to 50 km/h in the morning.

Wednesday is forecast to be quite warm here – 16 degrees. We haven’t been getting that high for a while now. Apparently it will probably rain. The wind is just the usual 30-40kph.

dv said:

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

I mean… cool, but this time an talent could have been applied to almost anything else given that the whole reasona jogsaw puzzle exists is for the enjoyment of people who do it. Maybe he can build a robot that watches movies or goes on a picnic for you.

I could get a robot to drink my scotch.

Judging by my spelling in that post, I should have got a robot to do my drinking as well.

*and *reason *jigsaw

this=his too you incompetent nincompoop.

I was talking to the chef at the takeaway and he was saying that they only sauce renewable snapper that is caught by first nation male elders using traditional methods.
It was very tasty indeed.

Peak Warming Man said:

I was talking to the chef at the takeaway and he was saying that they only sauce renewable snapper that is caught by first nation male elders using traditional methods.
It was very tasty indeed.

Tomato sauce?

Witty Rejoinder said:

dv said:

Bubblecar said:

I could get a robot to drink my scotch.

Judging by my spelling in that post, I should have got a robot to do my drinking as well.

*and *reason *jigsaw

this=his too you incompetent nincompoop.

No, I meant this.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Peak Warming Man said:

I was talking to the chef at the takeaway and he was saying that they only sauce renewable snapper that is caught by first nation male elders using traditional methods.
It was very tasty indeed.

Tomato sauce?

Tata, their unsauced fish is not very good.

dv said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

dv said:

Judging by my spelling in that post, I should have got a robot to do my drinking as well.

*and *reason *jigsaw

this=his too you incompetent nincompoop.

No, I meant this.

I’ll excuse you this time…

mutters

Jogsaw puzzles might be a good idea, adding exercise to a normally sedentary recreation.

dv said:

Dark Orange said:

Spiny Norman said:

A video of a rather clever chap making a machine to solve jigsaw puzzles.

Jigzilla: the automatic puzzle solving machine

Just finished watching that :)

I mean… cool, but this time an talent could have been applied to almost anything else given that the whole reasona jogsaw puzzle exists is for the enjoyment of people who do it. Maybe he can build a robot that watches movies or goes on a picnic for you.

You’re missing the point. It’s not about the task, it’s about the engineering needed to overcome the apparently simple problems.

Peak Warming Man said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Peak Warming Man said:

I was talking to the chef at the takeaway and he was saying that they only sauce renewable snapper that is caught by first nation male elders using traditional methods.
It was very tasty indeed.

Tomato sauce?

Tata, their unsauced fish is not very good.

Did you have a chat to the chef about it?

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

Fuck really lol

Mr Minit did mine for $15

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

Fuck really lol

Mr Minit did mine for $15

The local hardware does 2 for $5.

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

Fuck really lol

Mr Minit did mine for $15

How long ago?

Kingy said:

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

Fuck really lol

Mr Minit did mine for $15

Car keys?

The local hardware does 2 for $5.

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

take your balaclava off next time

Peak Warming Man said:

Kingy said:

dv said:

Fuck really lol

Mr Minit did mine for $15

Car keys?

The local hardware does 2 for $5.

Don’t you start, lol.

and while, I looks up etymology

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/balaclava

“From the city of Balaklava in the Crimea, from Ottoman Turkish بالقلاوه‎ (modern Turkish balıklava), alteration of بالقلاغه‎ (balıklaga, “fishing ground”). During the Crimean War the British troops suffered from cold due to improper clothing. When the news spread in the home front after the Battle of Balaclava in 1854, the people began knitting warm clothing for the soldiers, including woollen caps to be worn under the helmet, which were named balaclavas by the troops.”

One of the nearby weather stations clocked a gust of 122kmh this arvo. Current pressure 988hPa.
Though it does seem to be dying down a bit now.

The wave forecast is for 7-9.5m, so I expect the surfies to be out trying to drown themselves tomorrow.

Kingy said:

One of the nearby weather stations clocked a gust of 122kmh this arvo. Current pressure 988hPa.
Though it does seem to be dying down a bit now.

The wave forecast is for 7-9.5m, so I expect the surfies to be out trying to drown themselves tomorrow.

Madness. It’s bloody freezing.

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

I just realised that since you invested half your super into bitcoin 8 years ago, you’ll have a flash car now, that needs a flash key. Mine was just a door key, so yeah, I guess you would be paying for the blank.

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

The smarts in the key is the bulk of the cost.

Dark Orange said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

The smarts in the key is the bulk of the cost.

I thought you had to get them through the dealership.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Dark Orange said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

The smarts in the key is the bulk of the cost.

I thought you had to get them through the dealership.

Kinda.
You can buy new keys easily, but telling the car’s computer that it is a real and valid key is the difficult part. So the bulk of the new keys are just programmed as a clone of an existing key.

Kingy said:

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

Fuck really lol

Mr Minit did mine for $15

The local hardware does 2 for $5.

Not for a lot of modern keys, as they have a transponder in the fob. The code it makes has to be generated as well.

Spiny Norman said:

Kingy said:

dv said:

Fuck really lol

Mr Minit did mine for $15

The local hardware does 2 for $5.

Not for a lot of modern keys, as they have a transponder in the fob. The code it makes has to be generated as well.

Um, car keys I mean.

sarahs mum said:

That’s a fast cow. It would be pasteurized before you knew it.

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

Fuck really lol

Mr Minit did mine for $15

How long ago?

2021

sarahs mum said:

MBS: despot in the desert
A volatile millennial wields absolute power in Saudi Arabia. What will he do next?

Jul 28th 2022

By Nicolas Pelham

No one wanted to play football with Muhammad bin Salman. Sure, the boy was a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family, but so were 15,000 other people. His classmates preferred the company of his cousins, who were higher up the assumed order of succession, a childhood acquaintance recalls. As for the isolated child who would one day become crown prince, a family friend recounts hearing him called “little Saddam”.

Home life was tricky for bin Salman, too (he is now more commonly known by his initials, mbs). His father, Salman, already had five sons with his first wife, an educated woman from an elite urban family. mbs’s mother, Salman’s third wife, was a tribeswoman. When mbs visited the palace where his father lived with his first wife, his older half-brothers mocked him as the “son of a Bedouin”. Later, his elder brothers and cousins were sent to universities in America and Britain. The Bedouin offspring of Prince Salman stayed in Riyadh to attend King Saud University.

As young adults, the royals sometimes cruised on superyachts together; mbs was reportedly treated like an errand boy, sent onshore to buy cigarettes. A photo from one of these holidays shows a group of 16 royals posing on a yacht-deck in shorts and sunglasses, the hills of the French Riviera behind them. In the middle is mbs’s cousin, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a billionaire investor dubbed “the Arabian Warren Buffett”. mbs, tall and broad-shouldered in a white t-shirt, is pushed to the farthest edge.

Fast forward to today, and mbs has moved to the centre of the frame, the most important decision-maker in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy but mbs’s 86-year-old father, though nominally head of state, is rarely seen in public anymore. It has been clear for several years that mbs is in charge. “In effect,” a former Saudi intelligence agent told me, “King Salman is no longer king.”

At first glance the 36-year-old prince looks like the ruler many young Saudis had been waiting for, closer in age to his people than any previous king – 70% of the Saudi population is under 30. The millennial autocrat is said to be fanatical about the video game “Call of Duty”: he blasts through the inertia and privileges of the mosque and royal court as though he were fighting virtual opponents on screen.

His restless impatience and disdain for convention have helped him push through reforms that many thought wouldn’t happen for generations. The most visible transformation of Saudi Arabia is the presence of women in public where once they were either absent or closely guarded by their husband or father. There are other changes, too. Previously, the kingdom offered few diversions besides praying at the mosque; today you can watch Justin Bieber in concert, sing karaoke or go to a Formula 1 race. A few months ago I even went to a rave in a hotel. Saudis and foreigners danced barefoot on the sand until dawn, a couple kissed, women stripped down to tank tops and fruit juice laced with alcohol was served at an open bar.

But embracing Western consumer culture doesn’t mean embracing Western democratic values: it can as easily support a distinctively modern, surveillance state. On my recent trips to Saudi Arabia, people from all levels of society seemed terrified about being overheard voicing disrespect or criticism, something I’d never seen there before. “I’ve survived four kings,” said a veteran analyst who refused to speculate about why much of Jeddah, the country’s second-largest city, is being bulldozed: “Let me survive a fifth.”

The West, beguiled by promises of change and dependent on Saudi oil, at first seemed prepared to ignore mbs’s excesses. Then, in late 2018, Saudi officials in Istanbul murdered a Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, and dismembered his body with a bone saw. Even the most pro-Saudi leaders turned away.

Today, thanks to another autocrat, Vladimir Putin, the Saudi prince is back in demand. After Putin invaded Ukraine in February, the price of crude shot up. Boris Johnson was on a plane within weeks. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, previously a sworn enemy of the crown prince, embraced mbs in Riyadh in April. War even forced America’s president into a humiliating climbdown. On the campaign trail in 2020 Joe Biden had vowed to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah”. But on July 15th he went to make his peace with mbs – trying to avoid shaking mbs’s hand, he instead opted for a fist bump that left the two looking all the chummier. Even critics at home acknowledged mbs’s victory. “He made Biden look weak,” said a Saudi columnist in Jeddah. “He stood up to a superpower and won before the world.”

For mbs, this is a moment of triumph. His journey from the fringe of a photograph to the heart of power is almost complete. He will probably be king for decades. During that time, his country’s oil will be needed to sate the world’s enduring demand for energy.

A kingdom where the word of one man counts for so much depends utterly on his character. The hope is that, with his position secure, mbs will forswear the vengefulness and intolerance that produced Khashoggi’s murder. But some, among them his childhood classmates, fear something darker. They are reminded of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, a one-time moderniser who became so addicted to accumulating power that he turned reckless and dangerous. “At first power bestows grandeur,” a former Western intelligence officer told me, of mbs. “But then comes the loneliness, suspicion and fear that others will try to grab what you grabbed.”

During the early years of mbs’s ascent, I was vaguely aware of him as one prince among many. I probably wouldn’t have paid him much attention if an old contact of mine hadn’t joined his staff. His new boss, my contact said, was serious about shaking things up. He arranged the meeting at a faux-ancient mud-brick village on the outskirts of Riyadh in 2016. As my Economist colleagues and I approached, the gates of mbs’s compound suddenly slid open, like a Bond-villain’s lair. In the inner chamber sat mbs.

Reform has often been promised in Saudi Arabia – usually in response to American hectoring – but successive kings lacked the mettle to push change through. When the Al Sauds conquered Arabia in the 1920s, they made an alliance with an ultra-conservative religious group called the Wahhabis. In 1979, after a group of religious extremists staged a brief armed takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Al Sauds decided to make the kingdom more devout to fend off a possible Islamic revolution, as had just happened in Iran. Wahhabi clerics were empowered to run society as they saw fit.

The Wahhabis exercised control through the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, otherwise known as the religious police. They whacked the ankles of women whose hair poked through their veil and lashed the legs of men who wore shorts. The arrangement suited the House of Saud. Wahhabism provided social control and gave legitimacy to the Saudi state, leaving the royals free to enjoy their oil wealth in the more permissive environments of London and Paris, or behind the gates of their palaces.

I’m loth to admit it now, but as the prince talked in Riyadh about his plans to modernise society and the economy, I was impressed by his enthusiasm, vision and command of the details. He gave what turned out to be accurate answers about how and when his reforms would happen. Though he was not yet crown prince, he frequently referred to Saudi Arabia as “my” country. We arrived at around 9pm. At 2am, mbs was still in full flow.

mbs was affable, self-assured, smiling. His advisers were more subdued. If they spoke at all, it was to robotically repeat their master’s lines. Yet when mbs left the room to take a call, they started chatting animatedly. As the prince re-entered, silence fell.

Like many in those early years, I was excited about what mbs might do for the kingdom. When I returned to the capital a few months later I saw a number of men wearing shorts. I kept looking over my shoulder for the religious police, but none came – they had been stripped of their powers of arrest.

As crown prince, mbs has introduced a code of law so that judicial sentencing accords with state guidelines, not a judge’s own interpretation of the Koran. He criminalised stoning to death and forced marriage. The most overt change involved the role of women. mbs attacked guardianship laws that prevented women from working, travelling, owning a passport, opening a business, having hospital treatment or divorcing without approval from a male relative. In practice, many Saudi women have found these new rights hard to claim in a patriarchal society, and men can still file claims of disobedience against female relatives. But mbs’s reforms were more than cosmetic. Some clerics were jailed; the rest soon fell into line.

mbs seemed to relish breaking religious taboos. His new state tv channel broached the subject of homosexuality. In September 2017 he lifted a ban on Tinder, a dating app. The following year one of Mecca’s imams was dragooned into dealing the first deck at a new card-game competition, a pastime hitherto denounced as a sinful distraction. He brought many new sports to the kingdom: boxing, wrestling, monster-jam motorsports for turbo-charged 4×4s and even a Pamplona-style running of the bulls. “He’s a fucking rock-star,” said an American spectator who’d watched him receive a standing ovation at the Formula 1 race in Jeddah late last year.

For foreigners, Riyadh is less forbidding these days. “I’m afraid I’ll be caught for not drinking,” a teetotal businessman told me. “There’s cocaine, alcohol and hookers like I haven’t seen in southern California,” says another party-goer. “It’s really heavy duty stuff.” A former senior Saudi official says sex workers, many from eastern Europe, can earn $3,000 for attending a party and $10,000 for staying the night.

When mbs first entered public life he had a reputation for being as strait-laced as his father, rare among royals. That quickly changed. Many of the people interviewed for this article said that they believe mbs frequently uses drugs, which he denies. A court insider says that in 2015 his friends decided that he needed some r&r on an island in the Maldives. According to investigative journalists Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck in their book “Blood and Oil”, 150 models were recruited to join the gathering and were then shuttled “by golf cart to a medical centre to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases”. Several international music stars were flown in, including Afrojack, a Dutch dj. Then the press blew mbs’s cover.

Thereafter, the prince preferred to unwind off the Red Sea coast. At weekends his entourage formed a flotilla by mooring their yachts around his, Serene, which has a driving range and a cinema. According to a former official, “dj mbs”, as his friends called him, would spin the discs wearing his trademark cowboy hat. The yacht is only one of the luxuries mbs has splurged on. He also bought a £230m ersatz French chateau near Versailles, built in 2008 (the meditation room doubles as an aquarium). He is said to have boasted that he wanted to be the first trillionaire.

We put these and other allegations in this article to mbs’s representatives. Through the Saudi embassy in London, they issued a broad denial, saying “the allegations are denied and are without foundation.”

mbs’s loosening of social mores reflects the values of many of his youthful peers, in Saudi and beyond – as does his taste for the flashier side of life. Yet despite the social revolution, the prince is no keener than Wahhabi clerics on letting people think for themselves. Shortly before lifting a ban on women driving in 2018, mbs’s officials imprisoned Loujain al-Hathloul, one of the leaders of the campaign for women’s rights. Her family say jailers waterboarded and electrocuted her, and that Saud al-Qahtani, one of mbs’s closest advisers, was present during her torment and threatened to rape her. (A un investigation found reasonable grounds to believe that Qahtani was involved in the torture of female activists. Qahtani allegedly told one of these women: “I’ll do whatever I like to you, and then I’ll dissolve you and flush you down the toilet.”) Hathloul was charged with inciting change to the ruling system. The message was clear: only one person was allowed to do that.

Mbs is ruthlessly ambitious – he reportedly loved reading about Alexander the Great as a teenager – but he also owes his rise to some extraordinary twists of fortune. Succession can be an unpredictable affair in Saudi Arabia. The monarchy is only two generations old, founded in 1932, and the crown has so far moved from brother to brother among the founding ruler’s sons. That has become harder as the prospective heirs age. mbs’s father wasn’t tipped to be king, but after his two older brothers died unexpectedly in 2011 and 2012, he was catapulted up the line of succession.

When Salman became the heir-designate aged 76, he needed a chief of staff. Most courtiers expected him to choose one of the suave, English-speaking children of his first wife. Instead he appointed a son who spoke Arabic with a guttural Bedouin accent. (mbs has learned English fast since then: when we met in 2016 he sometimes corrected his translator.)

The choice to elevate mbs was less surprising to those who knew his father well. Salman had dedicated himself to his job as governor of Riyadh rather than chasing more lucrative commissions, and was a stickler for 8am starts, even in his 70s. He was known as the family disciplinarian, not averse to giving wayward royals a thwack with his walking stick or even a spell in his private prison. He clearly saw something of himself in his sixth son. mbs might love video games, but he was also a hard worker and keen to advance.

mbs put few limits on what he was prepared to do to achieve control. He earned the nickname Abu Rasasa – father of the bullet – after widespread rumours that he sent a bullet in the post to an official who ruled against him in a land dispute (Saudi officials have previously denied this rumour). He was fearsome in private, too. “There are these terrible tempers, smashing up offices, trashing the palace,” says a source with palace connections. “He’s extremely violent.” Several associates describe him as having wild mood swings. Two former palace insiders say that, during an argument with his mother, he once sprayed her ceiling with bullets. According to multiple sources and news reports, he has locked his mother away.

It’s hard to say how many wives he has; officially, there’s just one, a glamorous princess called Sara bint Mashour, but courtiers say he has at least one more. mbs presents his family life as normal and happy: earlier this year he told the Atlantic magazine that he eats breakfast with his children each morning (he has three boys and two girls, according to Gulf News – the eldest is said to be 11). One diplomat spoke of mbs’s kindness to his wife. But other sources inside the royal circle say that, on at least one occasion, Princess Sara was so badly beaten by her husband that she had to seek medical treatment.

We put this and other allegations in this piece to mbs’s representatives, who described them as “plain fabrication”, adding that “the kingdom is unfortunately used to false allegations made against its leadership, usually based on politically (or other) motivated malicious sources, particularly discredited individuals who have a long record of fabrications and baseless claims.”

mbs finally got a taste of political power in 2015 when Salman became king. Salman appointed his son deputy crown prince and minister of defence. One of mbs’s first moves was to launch a war in neighbouring Yemen. Even America, the kingdom’s closest military ally, was told only at the last minute.

There was an obvious obstacle in mbs’s path to the throne: his cousin, the 57-year-old heir-designate, Muhammad bin Nayef. Bin Nayef was the intelligence chief and the kingdom’s main interlocutor with the cia. He was widely credited with stamping out al-Qaeda in Saudi after 9/11. In June 2017 bin Nayef was summoned to meet the elderly king at his palace in Mecca.

The story of what happened next has emerged from press reports and my interviews. It seems that bin Nayef arrived by helicopter and took the lift to the fourth floor. Instead of the monarch, mbs’s agents were waiting. Bin Nayef was stripped of his weapons and phone, and told that a royal council had dismissed him. He was left alone to consider his options. Seven hours later, a court videographer filmed the charade of mbs kissing his cousin, then accepting his abdication as crown prince. King Salman kept a back seat throughout. Bin Nayef is now in detention (his uncle, who also had a claim to the throne, apparently intervened to try and protect bin Nayef, but was himself later detained). The staged resignation – an old trick of Saddam Hussein’s – would become mbs’s signature move.

That was just the warm-up act. In October 2017 mbs hosted an international investment conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh. At “Davos in the desert”, the likes of Christine Lagarde, Son Masayoshi and other business glitterati listened to mbs’s pitch for Saudi Arabia’s post-oil future, including the construction of Neom, a new $500bn “smart city”. The event was a hit. Diplomatic grumblings about the war in Yemen or the fate of America’s security partner, Muhammad bin Nayef, faded.

The gathering was also an opportunity to invite back royals who were often abroad. Once the foreigners had left, mbs pounced. Hundreds of princes and businessmen were swept up. According to a biography of mbs by Ben Hubbard, a New York Times journalist, one of them realised something was amiss only when they got to their hotel room: there were no pens, razors or glasses – nothing that could be used as a weapon.

mbs held the detainees in the Ritz-Carlton for several weeks (the Marriott and other hotels were also commandeered to house the overflow). Prisoners’ phones were confiscated. Some were said to have been hooded, deprived of sleep and beaten until they agreed to transfer money and hand over an inventory of their assets. All told, mbs’s guests at the Ritz-Carlton coughed up about $100bn.

Even royals previously thought untouchable, such as the powerful prince who ran the national guard, got similar treatment. Princess Basma, the youngest child of the second king of Saudi Arabia, was jailed for three years without charge or access to a lawyer; after being released she still had to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, according to a close associate of hers.

The crushing of the royals and business elite was billed as a crackdown on corruption – and undoubtedly it netted many corruptly acquired assets, which mbs said would be returned to the Saudi treasury. The methods, however, looked more like something from a gangster film than a judicial procedure.

Interrogations were overseen by Saud al-Qahtani, who reported directly to mbs whenever a detainee broke and gave out their bank details. (All the allegations in this piece concerning Qahtani were put to him via his lawyer. No response was given.) Qahtani had installed himself as one of mbs’s favoured henchmen, though earlier in his career, he’d plotted against Salman and his son, trying to sideline them with rumours that Salman had dementia. Qahtani was so loyal to the former faction that he’d named his son after his then boss. According to a former courtier, on the day of the old king’s funeral the two men had it out: mbs slapped Qahtani in the face. Later, mbs let Qahtani prove his worth and brought him on to his staff. Qahtani duly named his younger son Muhammad.

On paper, Qahtani was a communications adviser, a former journalist who understood Twitter and used an army of bots and loyal followers to intimidate critics on social media (his office included giant screens and holograms that staff used for target-practice with laser guns). In practice he was entrusted with mbs’s most important and violent missions – the ones that established his grip on power.

His remit extended far beyond Saudi’s borders. In 2016 he kidnapped Prince Sultan, a minor royal who had been bad-mouthing mbs. mbs offered his jet to fly Sultan from Paris to Cairo – instead, the plane was diverted to Saudi Arabia. According to Hope’s and Scheck’s book, Qahtani posed as Captain Saud, an airline pilot, though surprisingly one who had an expensive Hublot watch.

With rendition strategies like this, and the cash tap shut off, even royals who weren’t inside the Ritz-Carlton felt the pressure to divest themselves of ostentatious assets. The father of the Saudi ambassador to Britain put Glympton Park, his beloved 2,000-acre estate in the Cotswolds, up for sale. Riyadh’s jewellers did a roaring trade pawning the diamonds of lesser royals. “It’s like the Romanovs selling their Fabergé eggs,” said an adviser to an auction house.

Many commoners rejoiced at the downfall of their entitled elite. Princes and princesses who once lived off huge handouts began looking for jobs. Their titles became irrelevant. Unable to afford the cost of irrigation, their green ranches became desert again. Banks turned them away. One financial adviser recalled his response to princes trying to get credit on the strength of their royal status: “You call yourselves princes, but they say there’s only one prince now.”

The Ritz-Carlton episode was just one element of an extraordinary project of centralisation. mbs yanked control of various security services back from the princes. He took charge of Aramco, the semi-autonomous state oil company. He installed himself as boss of the sovereign-wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. “He destroyed all the powerful families,” says a retired diplomat. By late 2017, law, money and security in Saudi all flowed directly from him.

Among those who lost out were the fellow princes who had pushed a young mbs to the edge of the family photo on the yacht all those years ago. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, in the centre of that shot, surrendered part of his $17bn wealth. As the shakedown widened, mbs’s elder half-siblings put up their yacht for sale. Many of his cousins were locked up. “Payback time,” one victim said.

While mbs was squeezing the elite at home, he was forging some important friendships abroad. mbs and Donald Trump, who was elected president in 2016, had a lot in common. Both had the hunger of the underdog and loathed the snooty policymaking establishments in their countries; they revelled in provocation. The historic compact, by which Saudi Arabia provided oil to American consumers and America guaranteed the country’s security, had frayed in recent years. Barack Obama’s hurried exit from Iraq in 2011 and his nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 had left Saudi Arabia worried that it could no longer rely on American protection. America’s development of its own shale-oil reserves had also reduced its dependence on Saudi oil. Then Trump and mbs got cosy.

With the Trump administration’s tacit (and sometimes explicit) support, mbs set about treating the entire Middle East much as he did Saudi Arabia, trying to push aside rulers whom he found to be inconvenient. He announced a blockade of Qatar, a tiny gas-rich state to the east of Saudi Arabia. In 2017, angered by Lebanon’s dealings with Iran, mbs invited the prime minister, Saad Hariri, a long-time beneficiary of Saudi patronage, on a starlit camping trip. Hariri turned up, had his phone confiscated and soon found himself reading out a resignation speech on tv.

Both moves ultimately backfired. But Trump’s Middle East adviser, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, did little to discourage such antics. Together, he and mbs dreamt up a new regional order over WhatsApp, calling each other “Jared” and “Muhammad”. Their rapport was so great that, at Kushner’s prompting, mbs started the process of recognising Israel. His father, still officially king, put a stop to that.

mbs visited America in March 2018, hanging out in Silicon Valley with Peter Thiel and Tim Cook, and meeting celebrities, including Rupert Murdoch, James Cameron and Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson. Many people were keen to meet the man who controlled a $230bn sovereign-wealth fund. To his frustration, they were less willing to reciprocate by investing in the kingdom.

That October the intercontinental bonhomie came to an abrupt halt. I was due to go to a conference in Turkey that month. A Saudi journalist I knew, Jamal Khashoggi, got in touch to suggest meeting up: he was also going to be in Istanbul, for an appointment at the consulate. Khashoggi was a court insider whose criticisms of mbs in the Washington Post and elsewhere had attracted much attention. He seemed to be making more effort than usual to stay in touch. While I was at the conference a friend of his phoned me: Jamal still hadn’t emerged from the consulate, he said. By the time I got there, Turkish police were cordoning off the building.

The full story soon came out in leaked intelligence reports and, later, a un inquiry. A Saudi hit squad, which reportedly co-ordinated with Saud al-Qahtani, had flown to Istanbul. As they waited for Khashoggi to enter the consulate, they discussed plans for dismembering his body. According to tapes recorded inside the consulate by Turkish intelligence, Khashoggi was told, “We’re coming to get you.” There was a struggle, followed by the sound of plastic sheets being wrapped. A cia report said that mbs approved the operation.

mbs has said he takes responsibility for the murder, but denies ordering it. He sacked Qahtani and another official implicated in the intelligence reports. The fallout was immediate. Companies and speakers pulled out of that year’s Davos in the desert; the Gates Foundation ended its partnership with misk, an artistic and educational charity set up by the prince. Ari Emanuel, a Hollywood agent, cancelled a $400m deal with the kingdom.

The crown prince seems to have been genuinely surprised at the animus – “disappointed”, says an associate. Hadn’t he committed to all the reforms the West had been asking for? Perhaps he had underestimated the outcry provoked by going after a well-connected international figure, as opposed to a royal unknown outside Saudi Arabia. Or perhaps he understood Western governments’ priorities better than they did themselves. They had done little when Muhammad bin Nayef, their partner in battling terrorism, had disappeared; they had shrugged at reports of torture in the Ritz-Carlton, and at mbs’s reckless bombardment of Yemen. Why did they have so much to say about the killing of a single journalist?

Three years after the Khashoggi killing, Davos in the desert opened with the singer Gloria Gaynor. As images of smiling children flashed up on a giant screen behind her, she broke into her disco anthem, “I Will Survive”, asking the audience: “Did you think I’d crumble? Did you think I’d lay down and die?”

The chief executives of private-equity giants BlackRock and Blackstone were back, as were the heads of Goldman Sachs, SocGen and Standard Chartered. Even Amazon sent a representative despite the fact that its boss, Jeff Bezos, owns the Washington Post, the paper that employed Khashoggi. Meanwhile, Qahtani was creeping back into favour at the royal court – although he had been implicated by the un for Khashoggi’s murder, a Saudi court took the decision not to charge him.

mbs revitalised the near-dormant sovereign-wealth fund, pumping tens of billions of dollars into tech, entertainment and sports, to create a softer, more appealing image of Saudi and co-opt new partners. In April 2020, the fund led a consortium to buy Newcastle United, a premier-league football team (the deal took 18 months). The following year it launched an audacious bid to create Saudi’s own golf tour, the LIV series, hoping to lure players with a prize pot of $255m, far larger than that of American tournaments. At the first LIV tour this year, some top players boycotted the event, others went for the cash.

Joe Biden has proved tougher to woo. Soon after becoming president, Biden withdrew American military support for the war in Yemen. He wouldn’t talk to mbs, insisting that communications go through King Salman instead. He didn’t even nominate an ambassador to Riyadh for 15 months. The chat everywhere was that Saudi-American relations were in a deep freeze. Then, in February 2022, mbs had a stroke of luck: Russia invaded Ukraine.

In the days after war broke out, Biden himself tried to call mbs. The crown prince declined to speak to the president. He did take Putin’s call, however. The two men were already close. mbs had personally brought Russia into an expanded version of the opec cartel in order for Saudi Arabia to keep control of global oil production. Putin cemented the friendship in 2018 at the g20 summit in Buenos Aires, which took place weeks after the Khashoggi killing. While Western leaders shunned mbs, Putin gave the Saudi ruler a high-five before sitting down next to him.

mbs’s defiance of America seems to have paid off. After months of evasion, Biden reluctantly agreed to meet mbs in Jeddah in July, on the prince’s own turf and his own terms. The visit gave mbs recognition but did little to rebuild relations. There wasn’t even a concrete assurance of increasing oil production.

Some in the American foreign-policy establishment remain hopeful that mbs could become a helpful partner in the region, pointing to his recent retreat from confrontation with Qatar and his eagerness to find a diplomatic exit from Yemen. Perhaps, they say, he is maturing as a leader.

This seems optimistic. mbs’s disastrous campaign in Yemen was ostensibly in support of the country’s president but in April, hours after being summoned to a meeting and offered Arabic coffee and dates, Yemen’s president was reading out a resignation speech on tv. mbs took it upon himself to get rid of him personally – suggesting that his mode of international diplomacy remains as high-handed as ever. “What they’ve learned”, says one foreign analyst, “is don’t murder journalists who dine regularly with congressmen in the United States.”

The West has taught mbs something else, too – something that autocrats the world over may draw comfort from. No matter the sin, they would argue, if you sit tight through the odium and fury, eventually the financiers, the celebrities, even the Western leaders, will come running back. At 36, mbs has time on his side. Some observers fear that he may become only more dangerous as oil reserves start to decline and the treasure trove shrinks. “What happens when he’s a middle-aged man ruling a middle-income country and starts to get bored?” asks a diplomat who knows mbs personally. “Will he go on more adventures?”

Earlier this year, I visited an old friend in his office in Saudi Arabia. Before we started talking, he put his phone in a pouch that blocks the signal, to prevent government spies from listening in. Dissidents do that kind of thing in police states like China, but I’d never seen it before in Saudi Arabia. It isn’t just people involved with politics who are taking such precautions: most Saudis have become afraid to speak near a functioning mobile phone. People used to talk fairly openly in their offices, homes and cafés. Now, they are picked up for almost nothing.

As we chatted over the whir of his office air conditioning, my friend reeled off a list of people he knew who had been detained in the past month: a retired air-force chief who died in prison, a hospital administrator hauled away from his desk, a mother taken in front of her seven children, a lawyer who died seven days after his release from prison. “These people aren’t rabble rousers,” my friend said. “No one understands why.”

Officially, the government says it has no political prisoners. Rights groups reckon that thousands have been swept up in mbs’s dragnet. I’ve covered the Middle East since the 1990s and can’t think of anywhere where so many of my own contacts are behind bars.

Few ordinary Saudis predicted that when mbs was done trampling on the elites and the clerics, he would come for them next. Bringing Saudis into the modern, networked, online world has made it easier for the state to monitor what they are saying. A Red Crescent employee called Abdulrahman al-Sadhan used to run a satirical Twitter account under a pseudonym. In 2018 mbs’s agents arrested him and held him incommunicado for two years. American prosecutors later charged two former Twitter employees with allegedly handing over the real names behind various accounts to a Saudi official – al-Sadhan’s family believes that his name was among them. (The trial of one employee is ongoing; he denies passing on information to Saudi officials.)

On the face of it, mbs has nothing to worry about. Public opinion polls – if they can be trusted – suggest he is popular, particularly with younger Saudis. But there is a growing sense that discontent is brewing beneath the surface. mbs has broken crucial social contracts with the Saudi populace, by reducing handouts while, at the same time, dispensing with the tradition of hearing the feedback of ordinary people after Friday prayers.

It isn’t hard to imagine some of the issues they’d raise if they had the chance. Many people are struggling as the cost of living rises. When other governments were cushioning their citizens during the pandemic, mbs slashed fuel subsidies and tripled vat. Unable to afford the cost of pumping water, some farmers left crops to wither in the field. Fees for permits and fines have spiralled, too. Though mbs speaks eloquently about the country’s youth, he is struggling to find them jobs. Unemployment remains stubbornly stuck in double digits. Half of the jobless have a university degree, but most white-collar workers I met on mbs’s mega-projects were foreign.

Saudi Arabia’s attempts to diversify its economy – and so compensate for the long-term decline of oil reserves – isn’t going well either. The pandemic delayed plans for a rapid increase in international tourism. Extorting billions of dollars from your relatives may not be the best way to convince investors that the kingdom is a liberal haven.

The young prince has reversed even the baby steps towards democracy taken by previous kings. Municipal elections have been suspended – as a cost-cutting exercise, explains the supine press. The Shura Council, a consultative body of 150 people, has only met online since the pandemic (other institutions have gathered in person for months). “I wish I had more of a voice,” said one member. Whenever I mentioned the prince, his leg twitched.

A frequent visitor to the royal court says mbs now gives the impression of someone who’s always thinking that people are plotting against him. He seems to be preoccupied with loyalty. He fills key posts either with young royals, foreigners with no local base to threaten him or people he has already broken. A government minister, Ibrahim Assaf, was one of those locked up in the Ritz-Carlton – two months later mbs sent him to the World Economic Forum as his representative. A senior executive on one of his construction projects is someone who says he was tortured in one of his prisons. “He went from being strung naked from his ankles, beaten and stripped of all his assets to a high-level project manager,” says a close acquaintance of the man.

All remain vulnerable to mbs’s tantrums. Saudi sources say he once locked a minister in a toilet for ten hours. (The minister later appeared on tv blabbering platitudes about the prince’s wisdom.) A senior official I’ve spoken to says he wants out. “Everyone in his circle is terrified of him,” says an insider. And that could make it hard for him to govern a country of 35m people effectively. Former courtiers say no one close to mbs is prepared to offer a truthful assessment of whether his increasingly grandiose schemes are viable. “Saying no”, says one, “is not something they will ever do.”

If mbs has a mission beyond extending his power, you might expect to find it in Neom, the city he promised to build in the desert. Neom would be nothing less than “a civilisational leap for humanity”, he said in 2017. Head-spinning details followed. The city’s food would be grown on hydroponic walls on a floating structure. It would be powered by the world’s largest green-hydrogen plant. Thousands of snow-blowers would create a ski resort on a nearby mountain. One day it would have driverless cars and passenger drones.

According to the official timetable, the main city would be completed by 2020. Further districts would be added by 2025. The prince’s tourism minister, Ahmed al-Khateeb, dismissed rumours that the timetable was proving over-ambitious. “Come see with your eyes and not with your ears,” he urged. So I went.

Finding Neom was the first problem. There were no road signs to it. After three hours’ drive we came to the spot indicated by the map. It was bare, but for the odd fig tree. Camels strolled across the empty highway. Piles of rubble lined the road, remnants of the town bulldozed to make way for the mighty metropolis.

The designated area is nearly the size of Belgium. As far as I could tell, only two projects had been completed, mbs’s palace, and something Google Earth calls “The Neom Experience Centre” (when I drove to see it, it was obscured by a prefabricated hut). The only other solid building I could see was a hotel constructed before Neom was conceived: the Royal Tulip. A poster in the lobby urged me to “Discover Neom”. But when I asked for a guide the hotel manager cursed my sister with Arabic vulgarities and tried to shoo me away. There was no sign of the media hub with “frictionless facilitation”, “advanced infrastructure” and “collaborative ecosystems” promised by the Neom website. Neom’s head of communications and media, Wayne Borg, said he was “out of Kingdom at present”.

The hotel restaurant was teeming with consultants – all the ones I met were foreign. (I later found a Saudi project manager. “We think we’re about to start working, but every two months the consultants coin a new plan,” he told me. “They’re still doing plans of plans.”) There was a kind of manic short-termism among these foreigners. Many were paid $40,000 a month, plus handsome bonuses. “It’s like riding a bull,” one of the Neom consultants told me. “You know you’re gonna fall, that no one can last on a bull longer than a minute and a half, two minutes, so you make the most of it.”

Despite the high salaries, there are reports that foreigners are leaving the Neom project because they find the gap between expectations and reality so stressful. The head of Neom is said by his friends to be “terrified” at the lack of progress.

Eventually, I found a retired Saudi air-force technician who offered to drive me around the city for $600. He took me to a sculpture standing in the desert with the words, “I ❤ Neom”. A short way farther on we found a new stretch of tarmac, said to mark the edge of the dream city. Beyond it, the lone and level sands stretched far away.■

https://www.economist.com/1843/2022/07/28/mbs-despot-in-the-desert?

Witty Rejoinder said:

Dark Orange said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

The smarts in the key is the bulk of the cost.

I thought you had to get them through the dealership.

Last couple of cars I’ve had, there’s been an electronic fob but secreted within is a physical key that you can weazle out (in case the fob batt dies, I guess.) Mr Minit can’t copy the electronic fob but the key is just a key…

MBS did remove the requirement that women wear niqab, I’ll give him that.

Some of my pot plants and patio furniture have just been on an expedition across the backyard. If they are still on my property tomorrow, I’ll girdle my loins, and go collect them.

dv said:

MBS did remove the requirement that women wear niqab, I’ll give him that.

https://firstcity.ai/face-recognition-system/

Kingy said:

dv said:

MBS did remove the requirement that women wear niqab, I’ll give him that.

https://firstcity.ai/face-recognition-system/

Heh

Dark Orange said:

dv said:

Dark Orange said:

Just finished watching that :)

I mean… cool, but this time an talent could have been applied to almost anything else given that the whole reasona jogsaw puzzle exists is for the enjoyment of people who do it. Maybe he can build a robot that watches movies or goes on a picnic for you.

You’re missing the point. It’s not about the task, it’s about the engineering needed to overcome the apparently simple problems.

Engineers.

(I can say what I like about engineers. I am spawn of an engineer. Also sibling of an engineer.)

Kingy said:

Some of my pot plants and patio furniture have just been on an expedition across the backyard. If they are still on my property tomorrow, I’ll girdle my loins, and go collect them.

It was bin day today in my area. Some of my neighbours want to get their bins in and secured tonight, otherwise they might end up having to mount a search party in the morning. Empty bins and strong winds are no good, unless the driver thoughtfully left the bin lid open as he plonked it down so it fills with water as a bit of ballast.

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You know those little kiosks in shopping centres that repair shoes, cut keys etc well they wanted nearly $100 to copy a car key. I guess the bulk of that will be the blank?

Fuck really lol

Mr Minit did mine for $15

How long ago?

PWM’s key is probably some fancy schmancy one. I’ve just had to look up the battery type for my Suzuki S-Cross key. It’s not reliably remote unlocking. Mr buffy tells me if the battery dies the car won’t start because of the anti-theft thingy.

Spiny Norman said:

sarahs mum said:

I reckon it would be hard to get out of low gear with a cow on board. But a lion is not THAT heavy

party_pants said:

Kingy said:

Some of my pot plants and patio furniture have just been on an expedition across the backyard. If they are still on my property tomorrow, I’ll girdle my loins, and go collect them.

It was bin day today in my area. Some of my neighbours want to get their bins in and secured tonight, otherwise they might end up having to mount a search party in the morning. Empty bins and strong winds are no good, unless the driver thoughtfully left the bin lid open as he plonked it down so it fills with water as a bit of ballast.

It was bin day here as well. We decided that the cost of a new bin was more than the inconvenience of waiting another week.

Spiny Norman said:

sarahs mum said:

That appears to be just before Holden put the lion on the front of the car.

About 1948?

dv said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Dark Orange said:

The smarts in the key is the bulk of the cost.

I thought you had to get them through the dealership.

Last couple of cars I’ve had, there’s been an electronic fob but secreted within is a physical key that you can weazle out (in case the fob batt dies, I guess.) Mr Minit can’t copy the electronic fob but the key is just a key…

Not necessarily. My old Rodeo ute requires that you turn a key in the ignition to start it. The key has a plastic casing at the ‘handle’ end which houses a microchip, which has an ignition code.

I lost the key, and had to get a new one made. The locksmith had to get the code from GMH, and encode into the chip of the new key. It cost a couple of hundred dollars.

I also have a plain metal key for that ute. No plastic housing or chip, just the traditional-style metal key. Key-cut pattern is identical to the key with the chip.

That plain metal key will unlock the ute, but it will not start it.

The key with the chip will both unlock and start the ute. If the proximity sensor built into the ignition does not ‘see’ the chip within range, and read that it has the right code, the ute will not start.

And this is no fancy-schmancy vehicle. A very basic ute in all respects.

Witty Rejoinder said:

MBS: despot in the desert
A volatile millennial wields absolute power in Saudi Arabia. What will he do next?

Jul 28th 2022

By Nicolas Pelham

No one wanted to play football with Muhammad bin Salman. Sure, the boy was a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family, but so were 15,000 other people. His classmates preferred the company of his cousins, who were higher up the assumed order of succession, a childhood acquaintance recalls. As for the isolated child who would one day become crown prince, a family friend recounts hearing him called “little Saddam”.

https://www.economist.com/1843/2022/07/28/mbs-despot-in-the-desert?

Thanks for that, Witty. Good read.

Was just playing a game on chess.com. It got down to my opponent’s King and 2 knights vs my King and 1 knight.

My opponent made the mistake of taking my knight. Paradoxically, while KNN v KN is fairly winnable, KNN v K is pretty much impossible: requires an extremely grave blunder.

captain_spalding said:

dv said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

I thought you had to get them through the dealership.

Last couple of cars I’ve had, there’s been an electronic fob but secreted within is a physical key that you can weazle out (in case the fob batt dies, I guess.) Mr Minit can’t copy the electronic fob but the key is just a key…

Not necessarily. My old Rodeo ute requires that you turn a key in the ignition to start it. The key has a plastic casing at the ‘handle’ end which houses a microchip, which has an ignition code.

I lost the key, and had to get a new one made. The locksmith had to get the code from GMH, and encode into the chip of the new key. It cost a couple of hundred dollars.

I also have a plain metal key for that ute. No plastic housing or chip, just the traditional-style metal key. Key-cut pattern is identical to the key with the chip.

That plain metal key will unlock the ute, but it will not start it.

The key with the chip will both unlock and start the ute. If the proximity sensor built into the ignition does not ‘see’ the chip within range, and read that it has the right code, the ute will not start.

And this is no fancy-schmancy vehicle. A very basic ute in all respects.

I do seem to be a bit behind the times.

This is the starter for a basic ute where I grew up.

I’m not sure that you could get one made at your local “Starters R Us” kiosk in the shopping center these days.

Frank Walker from National Tiles was advertising their Buy and Save sale that’s on now on the wireless today.
Makes sense, the more you buy the more you save.
You’ll need to be quick because an offer like this wont last.

The Australian Tax Office announced the excise on beer would be lifted by 4%, or $2.50 more a litre on Monday under its CPI indexation review.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/15-beers-biggest-tax-hike-in-30-years-paints-sobering-future-for-australia-s-ale-drinkers/ar-AA10b4px?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e58b3389e3ae49e887fdebc890ce4d86

Hmmm.

dv said:

Was just playing a game on chess.com. It got down to my opponent’s King and 2 knights vs my King and 1 knight.

My opponent made the mistake of taking my knight. Paradoxically, while KNN v KN is fairly winnable, KNN v K is pretty much impossible: requires an extremely grave blunder.

That is not intuitive.

sibeen said:

The Australian Tax Office announced the excise on beer would be lifted by 4%, or $2.50 more a litre on Monday under its CPI indexation review.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/15-beers-biggest-tax-hike-in-30-years-paints-sobering-future-for-australia-s-ale-drinkers/ar-AA10b4px?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e58b3389e3ae49e887fdebc890ce4d86

Hmmm.

Well, back to home brewing.

captain_spalding said:

sibeen said:

The Australian Tax Office announced the excise on beer would be lifted by 4%, or $2.50 more a litre on Monday under its CPI indexation review.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/15-beers-biggest-tax-hike-in-30-years-paints-sobering-future-for-australia-s-ale-drinkers/ar-AA10b4px?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e58b3389e3ae49e887fdebc890ce4d86

Hmmm.

Well, back to home brewing.

Yeah, especially if beer is over $60 a litre, FFS.

I read some news, in one page a cretin popped up speaking news, from a few weeks back maybe, didn’t seem to be a fan of masks, so much so it expressed strong ideas about what was good for everyone, which ordinarily might be an arrogant thing to do, but the cretin didn’t seem discouraged by that possibility

I listened to it right through while reading, and had the wild idea there are reasons most people don’t live in large communes with random human traffic through them, I had a contrary thinkies

of course the reality probably is that most members of the civilized world regulate who they swap air with, typical adults anyway, and of young children the caregivers do it

I went further and wondered why people live in family homes, have private homes, with front gates and doors, and limit social exchanges

I bet the cretin is a bit discerning re who it swaps air with, though the message from the persona doesn’t make that obvious

it’s possibly an interesting study subject anyway, those that advocate for covid gregariousness in others, but are likely quite discriminating privately

perhaps in the end the we will be one big happy worldist commune, nobody will own anything and everyone will be happy, just need some disease to bring everybody together

sibeen said:

The Australian Tax Office announced the excise on beer would be lifted by 4%, or $2.50 more a litre on Monday under its CPI indexation review.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/15-beers-biggest-tax-hike-in-30-years-paints-sobering-future-for-australia-s-ale-drinkers/ar-AA10b4px?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e58b3389e3ae49e887fdebc890ce4d86

Hmmm.

The excise on a pint of beer for example will go from 80 cents to 84 cents.

It’s not immediately clear to me why this would result in a noticeable price increase…

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Was just playing a game on chess.com. It got down to my opponent’s King and 2 knights vs my King and 1 knight.

My opponent made the mistake of taking my knight. Paradoxically, while KNN v KN is fairly winnable, KNN v K is pretty much impossible: requires an extremely grave blunder.

That is not intuitive.

You might even say it is counterintuitive.

sibeen said:

captain_spalding said:

sibeen said:

The Australian Tax Office announced the excise on beer would be lifted by 4%, or $2.50 more a litre on Monday under its CPI indexation review.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/15-beers-biggest-tax-hike-in-30-years-paints-sobering-future-for-australia-s-ale-drinkers/ar-AA10b4px?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e58b3389e3ae49e887fdebc890ce4d86

Hmmm.

Well, back to home brewing.

Yeah, especially if beer is over $60 a litre, FFS.

Seriously, i’ve been thinking of taking up home brewing again. Haven’t done it for many years, but there’s a good home brew shop in town run by some real fanatics for the game.

dv said:

sibeen said:

The Australian Tax Office announced the excise on beer would be lifted by 4%, or $2.50 more a litre on Monday under its CPI indexation review.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/15-beers-biggest-tax-hike-in-30-years-paints-sobering-future-for-australia-s-ale-drinkers/ar-AA10b4px?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e58b3389e3ae49e887fdebc890ce4d86

Hmmm.

The excise on a pint of beer for example will go from 80 cents to 84 cents.

It’s not immediately clear to me why this would result in a noticeable price increase…

yes, it is the excise on the alcohol.

ChrispenEvan said:

dv said:

sibeen said:

The Australian Tax Office announced the excise on beer would be lifted by 4%, or $2.50 more a litre on Monday under its CPI indexation review.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/15-beers-biggest-tax-hike-in-30-years-paints-sobering-future-for-australia-s-ale-drinkers/ar-AA10b4px?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e58b3389e3ae49e887fdebc890ce4d86

Hmmm.

The excise on a pint of beer for example will go from 80 cents to 84 cents.

It’s not immediately clear to me why this would result in a noticeable price increase…

yes, it is the excise on the alcohol.

and nobody could post for 10 minutes.

ChrispenEvan said:

ChrispenEvan said:

dv said:

The excise on a pint of beer for example will go from 80 cents to 84 cents.

It’s not immediately clear to me why this would result in a noticeable price increase…

yes, it is the excise on the alcohol.

and nobody could post for 10 minutes.

Hows the wind at your place?

Kingy said:

ChrispenEvan said:

ChrispenEvan said:

yes, it is the excise on the alcohol.

and nobody could post for 10 minutes.

Hows the wind at your place?

cheeks firmly clenched here….

Kingy said:

ChrispenEvan said:

ChrispenEvan said:

yes, it is the excise on the alcohol.

and nobody could post for 10 minutes.

Hows the wind at your place?

pretty mild. far enough inland and have some big trees between me and the coast so it doesn’t get very bad.

I helped out the local history association today, to put together a display in the library about the old original families in this area.

Some of them first settled in the 1800’s. Their direct descendants were the ones providing the old pics and stories about their grandparents. It was very interesting to find out who were the rellies of whom.

sibeen said:

The Australian Tax Office announced the excise on beer would be lifted by 4%, or $2.50 more a litre on Monday under its CPI indexation review.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/15-beers-biggest-tax-hike-in-30-years-paints-sobering-future-for-australia-s-ale-drinkers/ar-AA10b4px?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e58b3389e3ae49e887fdebc890ce4d86

Hmmm.

Well something has got to pay off the national debt, hey what but.

Well, that was a fun weekend. I had eye surgery on Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning the pain in the eye was so bad I passed out from it. Went to hospital and told the ophthalmologist why, and that the eye was extremely photophobic, so they shone bright lights in it while the surgeon inspected it with an ophthalmoscope. She said the surgery went well, and sent me home, refusing to comment on why it was so painful or how much worse it would get, telling me to stick to otc analgesics, although she did give me a prescription for a combined antibiotic and anaesthetic eyedrop. After a weekend of severe eye pain, I’m now relatively pain free.

The surgery felt somewhat surreal: they put a patch over the other eye, and used analgesic drops in the eye they were operating on, after first giving me a sedative (which didn’t seem to do anything. I was conscious and alert for the whole operation, even telling the anaesthetist that the eye was becoming very painful at one point,) and the anaesthetist said she would give me an injection into the eye to numb the eye and relax the muscles. I didn’t feel that injection, but couldn’t see anything for the duration of the surgery — it was completely dark, though they obviously hadn’t covered that eye up for the op.

Visual acuity in that eye (which has a severe keratoconus, and so has had very poor visual acuity since I was about 14) is now comparable to the other — but now my brain doesn’t know how to focus properly, and I can only see clearly if I close the damaged (repaired?) eye, which is more comfortable anyway, since there’s still some photophobia.

sibeen said:

The Australian Tax Office announced the excise on beer would be lifted by 4%, or $2.50 more a litre on Monday under its CPI indexation review.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/15-beers-biggest-tax-hike-in-30-years-paints-sobering-future-for-australia-s-ale-drinkers/ar-AA10b4px?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e58b3389e3ae49e887fdebc890ce4d86

Hmmm.

That’s badly worded: do they mean an additional 4% of the current rate (current rate is x%; new rate is (x + 4%x)%, or 4% total (so new rate is (x+4)%)? And if 4%/l is $2.50, that’s $62.50/l (of beer? of pure ethanol?)

btm said:

sibeen said:

The Australian Tax Office announced the excise on beer would be lifted by 4%, or $2.50 more a litre on Monday under its CPI indexation review.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/15-beers-biggest-tax-hike-in-30-years-paints-sobering-future-for-australia-s-ale-drinkers/ar-AA10b4px?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e58b3389e3ae49e887fdebc890ce4d86

Hmmm.

That’s badly worded: do they mean an additional 4% of the current rate (current rate is x%; new rate is (x + 4%x)%, or 4% total (so new rate is (x+4)%)? And if 4%/l is $2.50, that’s $62.50/l (of beer? of pure ethanol?)

Hence my “Hmmm” and follow up comment about a litre of beer being over $60 :)

btm said:

Well, that was a fun weekend. I had eye surgery on Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning the pain in the eye was so bad I passed out from it. Went to hospital and told the ophthalmologist why, and that the eye was extremely photophobic, so they shone bright lights in it while the surgeon inspected it with an ophthalmoscope. She said the surgery went well, and sent me home, refusing to comment on why it was so painful or how much worse it would get, telling me to stick to otc analgesics, although she did give me a prescription for a combined antibiotic and anaesthetic eyedrop. After a weekend of severe eye pain, I’m now relatively pain free.

The surgery felt somewhat surreal: they put a patch over the other eye, and used analgesic drops in the eye they were operating on, after first giving me a sedative (which didn’t seem to do anything. I was conscious and alert for the whole operation, even telling the anaesthetist that the eye was becoming very painful at one point,) and the anaesthetist said she would give me an injection into the eye to numb the eye and relax the muscles. I didn’t feel that injection, but couldn’t see anything for the duration of the surgery — it was completely dark, though they obviously hadn’t covered that eye up for the op.

Visual acuity in that eye (which has a severe keratoconus, and so has had very poor visual acuity since I was about 14) is now comparable to the other — but now my brain doesn’t know how to focus properly, and I can only see clearly if I close the damaged (repaired?) eye, which is more comfortable anyway, since there’s still some photophobia.

That sounds like a miserable time. :(

I was wondering yesterday why the cornea is overrun with nerves. Seems strange.

btm said:

Well, that was a fun weekend. I had eye surgery on Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning the pain in the eye was so bad I passed out from it. Went to hospital and told the ophthalmologist why, and that the eye was extremely photophobic, so they shone bright lights in it while the surgeon inspected it with an ophthalmoscope. She said the surgery went well, and sent me home, refusing to comment on why it was so painful or how much worse it would get, telling me to stick to otc analgesics, although she did give me a prescription for a combined antibiotic and anaesthetic eyedrop. After a weekend of severe eye pain, I’m now relatively pain free.

The surgery felt somewhat surreal: they put a patch over the other eye, and used analgesic drops in the eye they were operating on, after first giving me a sedative (which didn’t seem to do anything. I was conscious and alert for the whole operation, even telling the anaesthetist that the eye was becoming very painful at one point,) and the anaesthetist said she would give me an injection into the eye to numb the eye and relax the muscles. I didn’t feel that injection, but couldn’t see anything for the duration of the surgery — it was completely dark, though they obviously hadn’t covered that eye up for the op.

Visual acuity in that eye (which has a severe keratoconus, and so has had very poor visual acuity since I was about 14) is now comparable to the other — but now my brain doesn’t know how to focus properly, and I can only see clearly if I close the damaged (repaired?) eye, which is more comfortable anyway, since there’s still some photophobia.

Shit, that sounds a bit grueling. Hope it all comes good for you soon-ish.

party_pants said:

btm said:

Well, that was a fun weekend. I had eye surgery on Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning the pain in the eye was so bad I passed out from it. Went to hospital and told the ophthalmologist why, and that the eye was extremely photophobic, so they shone bright lights in it while the surgeon inspected it with an ophthalmoscope. She said the surgery went well, and sent me home, refusing to comment on why it was so painful or how much worse it would get, telling me to stick to otc analgesics, although she did give me a prescription for a combined antibiotic and anaesthetic eyedrop. After a weekend of severe eye pain, I’m now relatively pain free.

The surgery felt somewhat surreal: they put a patch over the other eye, and used analgesic drops in the eye they were operating on, after first giving me a sedative (which didn’t seem to do anything. I was conscious and alert for the whole operation, even telling the anaesthetist that the eye was becoming very painful at one point,) and the anaesthetist said she would give me an injection into the eye to numb the eye and relax the muscles. I didn’t feel that injection, but couldn’t see anything for the duration of the surgery — it was completely dark, though they obviously hadn’t covered that eye up for the op.

Visual acuity in that eye (which has a severe keratoconus, and so has had very poor visual acuity since I was about 14) is now comparable to the other — but now my brain doesn’t know how to focus properly, and I can only see clearly if I close the damaged (repaired?) eye, which is more comfortable anyway, since there’s still some photophobia.

Shit, that sounds a bit grueling. Hope it all comes good for you soon-ish.

I’m trying to come up with some joke concerning pirate radio.

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Was just playing a game on chess.com. It got down to my opponent’s King and 2 knights vs my King and 1 knight.

My opponent made the mistake of taking my knight. Paradoxically, while KNN v KN is fairly winnable, KNN v K is pretty much impossible: requires an extremely grave blunder.

That is not intuitive.

BTW…

I was behind on time in this game: it was a blitz game, 3 minutes and no increment.

What actually happened is that the game ended in a draw immediately due to insufficient material.

This surprised me (and perhaps my opponent): under FIDE rules it’s not a draw by insuf material unless there is no possible way for either side to effect a checkmate. A KNN v K mate relies on a huge blunder but it’s certainly possible.

I figured this was just a bug and I raised it on the site forum. I got told that chessdotcom is a US company and it uses US chess rules, rather than FIDE.

A bit flabbergasted by this: I knew that different federations had different comp rules on timing and arbitration but this is quite an important difference.

FIDE lets the KNN v K game continue (since victory is a mathematical possibility): and when I ran out of time I’d have lost this game (and perhaps that’s what my opponent was expecting).

The pertinent US Chess rule is 14E3, attached.

Kingy said:

I helped out the local history association today, to put together a display in the library about the old original families in this area.

Some of them first settled in the 1800’s. Their direct descendants were the ones providing the old pics and stories about their grandparents. It was very interesting to find out who were the rellies of whom.

Nice

dv said:

Kingy said:

I helped out the local history association today, to put together a display in the library about the old original families in this area.

Some of them first settled in the 1800’s. Their direct descendants were the ones providing the old pics and stories about their grandparents. It was very interesting to find out who were the rellies of whom.

Nice

Old London Photos
Julia Thomas Arning · 23 mins ·

sarahs mum said:

Old London Photos
Julia Thomas Arning · 23 mins ·

If only we could do the same when internal combustion engines were no longer useful as we all moved over to electric cars.

“Pistons and crankshafts sold here”, “Passed as fit for housing construction”.

137kmh and 111kmh winds at the nearest weather stations. No wonder the windows are rattling.

Kingy said:

137kmh and 111kmh winds at the nearest weather stations. No wonder the windows are rattling.

That’ll break a few trees and swing some power lines about.

Kingy said:

137kmh and 111kmh winds at the nearest weather stations. No wonder the windows are rattling.

That’s like it gets here.

sarahs mum said:

Kingy said:

137kmh and 111kmh winds at the nearest weather stations. No wonder the windows are rattling.

That’s like it gets here.

We get it only 1 or 2 times a year

party_pants said:

sarahs mum said:

Kingy said:

137kmh and 111kmh winds at the nearest weather stations. No wonder the windows are rattling.

That’s like it gets here.

We get it only 1 or 2 times a year

I’m in the roaring 40+s.

sarahs mum said:

party_pants said:

sarahs mum said:

That’s like it gets here.

We get it only 1 or 2 times a year

I’m in the roaring 40+s.

I know.

but we get the lovely warm climate 4-5 months of the year between hot summer and cold winter.

Personally I prefer the summer heat over the winter cold.

party_pants said:

sarahs mum said:

party_pants said:

We get it only 1 or 2 times a year

I’m in the roaring 40+s.

I know.

but we get the lovely warm climate 4-5 months of the year between hot summer and cold winter.

Personally I prefer the summer heat over the winter cold.

i prefer tother.

Also allergic to mozzies and sandflies and grass mites. and that was meaningful until I almost died of european wasp.

https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/pladda-the-ultimate-island-getaway-could-be-yours-for-just-ps350000-3788381

The New York Times
6 mins ·
Elizabeth Johnson Jr., the last person who was not cleared in the Salem witch trials, has officially been exonerated 329 years after her conviction for witchcraft. It was the result of an effort led by an eighth-grade civics teacher and her students. https://nyti.ms/3vw3e45

Good morning Holidayers. It’s 5 degrees and dark. Not raining. Not windy. There is orange light around most of the horizon. Our sunup time today is 7.35am. Our forecast for today is for a windy, showery 14 degrees.

It’s Bakery Breakfast morning.

btm said:

Well, that was a fun weekend. I had eye surgery on Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning the pain in the eye was so bad I passed out from it. Went to hospital and told the ophthalmologist why, and that the eye was extremely photophobic, so they shone bright lights in it while the surgeon inspected it with an ophthalmoscope. She said the surgery went well, and sent me home, refusing to comment on why it was so painful or how much worse it would get, telling me to stick to otc analgesics, although she did give me a prescription for a combined antibiotic and anaesthetic eyedrop. After a weekend of severe eye pain, I’m now relatively pain free.

The surgery felt somewhat surreal: they put a patch over the other eye, and used analgesic drops in the eye they were operating on, after first giving me a sedative (which didn’t seem to do anything. I was conscious and alert for the whole operation, even telling the anaesthetist that the eye was becoming very painful at one point,) and the anaesthetist said she would give me an injection into the eye to numb the eye and relax the muscles. I didn’t feel that injection, but couldn’t see anything for the duration of the surgery — it was completely dark, though they obviously hadn’t covered that eye up for the op.

Visual acuity in that eye (which has a severe keratoconus, and so has had very poor visual acuity since I was about 14) is now comparable to the other — but now my brain doesn’t know how to focus properly, and I can only see clearly if I close the damaged (repaired?) eye, which is more comfortable anyway, since there’s still some photophobia.

What was the surgery? Did you get a corneal graft?

sarahs mum said:

btm said:

Well, that was a fun weekend. I had eye surgery on Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning the pain in the eye was so bad I passed out from it. Went to hospital and told the ophthalmologist why, and that the eye was extremely photophobic, so they shone bright lights in it while the surgeon inspected it with an ophthalmoscope. She said the surgery went well, and sent me home, refusing to comment on why it was so painful or how much worse it would get, telling me to stick to otc analgesics, although she did give me a prescription for a combined antibiotic and anaesthetic eyedrop. After a weekend of severe eye pain, I’m now relatively pain free.

The surgery felt somewhat surreal: they put a patch over the other eye, and used analgesic drops in the eye they were operating on, after first giving me a sedative (which didn’t seem to do anything. I was conscious and alert for the whole operation, even telling the anaesthetist that the eye was becoming very painful at one point,) and the anaesthetist said she would give me an injection into the eye to numb the eye and relax the muscles. I didn’t feel that injection, but couldn’t see anything for the duration of the surgery — it was completely dark, though they obviously hadn’t covered that eye up for the op.

Visual acuity in that eye (which has a severe keratoconus, and so has had very poor visual acuity since I was about 14) is now comparable to the other — but now my brain doesn’t know how to focus properly, and I can only see clearly if I close the damaged (repaired?) eye, which is more comfortable anyway, since there’s still some photophobia.

That sounds like a miserable time. :(

I was wondering yesterday why the cornea is overrun with nerves. Seems strange.

Helps with survival…pain makes you shut your eyelid protection pronto. Still sometimes not fast enough.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/grampians-death-coronial-inquest-more-warning-signs-needed/101290142

You know, I think extra signs would not have been heeded, like the signs already there were not heeded.

sarahs mum said:

The New York Times
6 mins ·
Elizabeth Johnson Jr., the last person who was not cleared in the Salem witch trials, has officially been exonerated 329 years after her conviction for witchcraft. It was the result of an effort led by an eighth-grade civics teacher and her students. https://nyti.ms/3vw3e45

I wonder what good it is to her now?

VICKERS RUWALT ENGINEERING. MELBOURNE. 1967
Fabulous Wolfgang Sievers photo showing a massive gear-wheel cast and machined at Vickers Ruwalt Engineering in Melbourne’s Burnley in 1967 for use in the mining industry.

In 1902, Charles Ernest Ruwolt opened an iron foundry in Wangaratta, in Victoria’s north east. In 1914, he transferred the business to Victoria Street Burnley (Melb) and concentrated on heavy industrial work: hydraulic presses, mining crushers and the like.

By 1938 it was one of the largest engineering companies in Australia, occupying 20 acres. During World War II the company reorganised to manufacture armaments. By then, the company employed 2000 workers and manufactured everything from trench mortars to howitzers.

Ruwalt died in 1946 and two years later his business was acquired by Vickers (UK). It continued as Vickers Ruwalt.

Good morning everybody.

Michael V said:

Good morning everybody.

Good morning MV. (Just got here myself)

Tamb said:

Michael V said:

Good morning everybody.

Good morning MV. (Just got here myself)

G’day to you both.

buffy said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/grampians-death-coronial-inquest-more-warning-signs-needed/101290142

You know, I think extra signs would not have been heeded, like the signs already there were not heeded.

When all you have in the toolbox is a hammer…

Spiny Norman said:

VICKERS RUWALT ENGINEERING. MELBOURNE. 1967
Fabulous Wolfgang Sievers photo showing a massive gear-wheel cast and machined at Vickers Ruwalt Engineering in Melbourne’s Burnley in 1967 for use in the mining industry.

In 1902, Charles Ernest Ruwolt opened an iron foundry in Wangaratta, in Victoria’s north east. In 1914, he transferred the business to Victoria Street Burnley (Melb) and concentrated on heavy industrial work: hydraulic presses, mining crushers and the like.

By 1938 it was one of the largest engineering companies in Australia, occupying 20 acres. During World War II the company reorganised to manufacture armaments. By then, the company employed 2000 workers and manufactured everything from trench mortars to howitzers.

Ruwalt died in 1946 and two years later his business was acquired by Vickers (UK). It continued as Vickers Ruwalt.

And these days, we can’t even build cars in this country.

captain_spalding said:

Spiny Norman said:

VICKERS RUWALT ENGINEERING. MELBOURNE. 1967
Fabulous Wolfgang Sievers photo showing a massive gear-wheel cast and machined at Vickers Ruwalt Engineering in Melbourne’s Burnley in 1967 for use in the mining industry.

In 1902, Charles Ernest Ruwolt opened an iron foundry in Wangaratta, in Victoria’s north east. In 1914, he transferred the business to Victoria Street Burnley (Melb) and concentrated on heavy industrial work: hydraulic presses, mining crushers and the like.

By 1938 it was one of the largest engineering companies in Australia, occupying 20 acres. During World War II the company reorganised to manufacture armaments. By then, the company employed 2000 workers and manufactured everything from trench mortars to howitzers.

Ruwalt died in 1946 and two years later his business was acquired by Vickers (UK). It continued as Vickers Ruwalt.

And these days, we can’t even build cars in this country.

ironic. eh.

captain_spalding said:

Spiny Norman said:

VICKERS RUWALT ENGINEERING. MELBOURNE. 1967
Fabulous Wolfgang Sievers photo showing a massive gear-wheel cast and machined at Vickers Ruwalt Engineering in Melbourne’s Burnley in 1967 for use in the mining industry.

In 1902, Charles Ernest Ruwolt opened an iron foundry in Wangaratta, in Victoria’s north east. In 1914, he transferred the business to Victoria Street Burnley (Melb) and concentrated on heavy industrial work: hydraulic presses, mining crushers and the like.

By 1938 it was one of the largest engineering companies in Australia, occupying 20 acres. During World War II the company reorganised to manufacture armaments. By then, the company employed 2000 workers and manufactured everything from trench mortars to howitzers.

Ruwalt died in 1946 and two years later his business was acquired by Vickers (UK). It continued as Vickers Ruwalt.

And these days, we can’t even build cars in this country.

Instead we concentrate on our comparative advantage and cure cancer etc.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Instead we concentrate on our comparative advantage and cure cancer etc.

There’s a cure for cancer now? I have to get me some of that.

captain_spalding said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Instead we concentrate on our comparative advantage and cure cancer etc.

There’s a cure for cancer now? I have to get me some of that.

Ooh, yes please.
I just had needle #588 & really don’t want any more.

buffy said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/grampians-death-coronial-inquest-more-warning-signs-needed/101290142

You know, I think extra signs would not have been heeded, like the signs already there were not heeded.

Signs, Signs,
Everywhere is signs
Blockin up the scenery
breaking my mind,

Do this don’t do that
Can’t you read the signs?

captain_spalding said:

buffy said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/grampians-death-coronial-inquest-more-warning-signs-needed/101290142

You know, I think extra signs would not have been heeded, like the signs already there were not heeded.

When all you have in the toolbox is a hammer…

If I had a hammer
I’d hammer in the morning,
I’d hammer in the evening
All over this land.

Woodie said:

buffy said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/grampians-death-coronial-inquest-more-warning-signs-needed/101290142

You know, I think extra signs would not have been heeded, like the signs already there were not heeded.

Signs, Signs,
Everywhere is signs
Blockin up the scenery
breaking my mind,

Do this don’t do that
Can’t you read the signs?

Morning punters and correctors.
We’ve had another good day overnight.

captain_spalding said:

buffy said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/grampians-death-coronial-inquest-more-warning-signs-needed/101290142

You know, I think extra signs would not have been heeded, like the signs already there were not heeded.

When all you have in the toolbox is a hammer…

… the fifth dose will achieve what the first four didn’t¡

Hello

Cymek said:

Hello

G’day

Clown Greens senator gives black power salute.

buffy said:

btm said:

Well, that was a fun weekend. I had eye surgery on Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning the pain in the eye was so bad I passed out from it. Went to hospital and told the ophthalmologist why, and that the eye was extremely photophobic, so they shone bright lights in it while the surgeon inspected it with an ophthalmoscope. She said the surgery went well, and sent me home, refusing to comment on why it was so painful or how much worse it would get, telling me to stick to otc analgesics, although she did give me a prescription for a combined antibiotic and anaesthetic eyedrop. After a weekend of severe eye pain, I’m now relatively pain free.

The surgery felt somewhat surreal: they put a patch over the other eye, and used analgesic drops in the eye they were operating on, after first giving me a sedative (which didn’t seem to do anything. I was conscious and alert for the whole operation, even telling the anaesthetist that the eye was becoming very painful at one point,) and the anaesthetist said she would give me an injection into the eye to numb the eye and relax the muscles. I didn’t feel that injection, but couldn’t see anything for the duration of the surgery — it was completely dark, though they obviously hadn’t covered that eye up for the op.

Visual acuity in that eye (which has a severe keratoconus, and so has had very poor visual acuity since I was about 14) is now comparable to the other — but now my brain doesn’t know how to focus properly, and I can only see clearly if I close the damaged (repaired?) eye, which is more comfortable anyway, since there’s still some photophobia.

What was the surgery? Did you get a corneal graft?

No, it was cataract surgery. The keratoconus complicated the surgery, and they had to use sutures. I don’t know how they managed to improve the visual acuity through the keratoconus, but I suspect (I’ll ask them when I see them tomorrow) that the new lens has compensation built in.

btm said:

buffy said:

btm said:

Well, that was a fun weekend. I had eye surgery on Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning the pain in the eye was so bad I passed out from it. Went to hospital and told the ophthalmologist why, and that the eye was extremely photophobic, so they shone bright lights in it while the surgeon inspected it with an ophthalmoscope. She said the surgery went well, and sent me home, refusing to comment on why it was so painful or how much worse it would get, telling me to stick to otc analgesics, although she did give me a prescription for a combined antibiotic and anaesthetic eyedrop. After a weekend of severe eye pain, I’m now relatively pain free.

The surgery felt somewhat surreal: they put a patch over the other eye, and used analgesic drops in the eye they were operating on, after first giving me a sedative (which didn’t seem to do anything. I was conscious and alert for the whole operation, even telling the anaesthetist that the eye was becoming very painful at one point,) and the anaesthetist said she would give me an injection into the eye to numb the eye and relax the muscles. I didn’t feel that injection, but couldn’t see anything for the duration of the surgery — it was completely dark, though they obviously hadn’t covered that eye up for the op.

Visual acuity in that eye (which has a severe keratoconus, and so has had very poor visual acuity since I was about 14) is now comparable to the other — but now my brain doesn’t know how to focus properly, and I can only see clearly if I close the damaged (repaired?) eye, which is more comfortable anyway, since there’s still some photophobia.

What was the surgery? Did you get a corneal graft?

No, it was cataract surgery. The keratoconus complicated the surgery, and they had to use sutures. I don’t know how they managed to improve the visual acuity through the keratoconus, but I suspect (I’ll ask them when I see them tomorrow) that the new lens has compensation built in.

I wonder if p_p survived the wild night?

ChrispenEvan said:

I wonder if p_p survived the wild night?

Doesn’t look like it, he wasn’t a bad bloke.

Singapore have a relatively small population but have a fair swim team.
India on the other hand have a massive population and you rarely hear swim and India used in the same sentence.

Peak Warming Man said:

Singapore have a relatively small population but have a fair swim team.
India on the other hand have a massive population and you rarely hear swim and India used in the same sentence.

People doing swimming practice in the Ganges have a short life expectancy.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Singapore have a relatively small population but have a fair swim team.
India on the other hand have a massive population and you rarely hear swim and India used in the same sentence.

People doing swimming practice in the Ganges have a short life expectancy.

Ha!

got wainies, some windies too

transition said:

got wainies, some windies too

best get kitchen fire going, pinch a burning stump from my bedroom

https://youtu.be/4R5r4shLDbs

Forgive the clickbaity title. In this video, Charles Cornell discusses Gustav Holst’s influence on John Williams.

Have to admit I couldn’t even name a Holst piece other than The Planets.

dv said:

https://youtu.be/4R5r4shLDbs

Forgive the clickbaity title. In this video, Charles Cornell discusses Gustav Holst’s influence on John Williams.

Have to admit I couldn’t even name a Holst piece other than The Planets.

St Pauls’ Suite was the first bit of music that got me into Holst.

Did we talk about al-zawahari’s death?

dv said:

Did we talk about al-zawahari’s death?

No.
So what was driving this assassination, low poll numbers?

dv said:

Did we talk about al-zawahari’s death?

no, but i read about it.

dv said:

Did we talk about al-zawahari’s death?

I don’t think so.

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Did we talk about al-zawahari’s death?

No.
So what was driving this assassination, low poll numbers?

Some woke millennials took potshots at his traditional values

sibeen said:

dv said:

https://youtu.be/4R5r4shLDbs

Forgive the clickbaity title. In this video, Charles Cornell discusses Gustav Holst’s influence on John Williams.

Have to admit I couldn’t even name a Holst piece other than The Planets.

St Pauls’ Suite was the first bit of music that got me into Holst.

I was wondering whether he’d scored any films so I checked out Wikipedia.

Holst wrote a score for a British film, The Bells (1931), and was amused to be recruited as an extra in a crowd scene.

Cool!

Both film and score are now lost.

Son of a bitch

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/us-news/2022/08/02/kentucky-floods-california-fire/

Link

dv said:

sibeen said:

dv said:

https://youtu.be/4R5r4shLDbs

Forgive the clickbaity title. In this video, Charles Cornell discusses Gustav Holst’s influence on John Williams.

Have to admit I couldn’t even name a Holst piece other than The Planets.

St Pauls’ Suite was the first bit of music that got me into Holst.

I was wondering whether he’d scored any films so I checked out Wikipedia.

Holst wrote a score for a British film, The Bells (1931), and was amused to be recruited as an extra in a crowd scene.

Cool!

Both film and score are now lost.

Son of a bitch

Williams’ “The Imperial March” from Star Wars is Chopin’s “Funeral March”, sped up a bit.

esselte said:

dv said:

sibeen said:

Cool!

Both film and score are now lost.

Son of a bitch

Williams’ “The Imperial March” from Star Wars is Chopin’s “Funeral March”, sped up a bit.

Well it’s not identical but there are similarities.

dv said:

esselte said:

dv said:

Son of a bitch

Williams’ “The Imperial March” from Star Wars is Chopin’s “Funeral March”, sped up a bit.

Well it’s not identical but there are similarities.

I wonder, does anyone else hear the similarities between The Game of Thrones opening credit music and the closing credit music of the original Blade Runner film. Ever since I first noticed it, they sound like the practically the same piece to me.

One that struck me when I heard it the first time was the Harry Potter theme, part of which sounds like the theme from The Thorn Birds, but in minor.

dv said:

dazvoz.com/Holiday-Forum-List-04.html

and belatedly updated

3D Resin printer arrived today. I have done all the assembly adjustments, now it’s time to pour in the goop and make stuff.

dv said:

Did we talk about al-zawahari’s death?

Why bother? He’s dead.
He didn’t really make any other news headlines that I saw.

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Did we talk about al-zawahari’s death?

No.
So what was driving this assassination, low poll numbers?

Remember, Obama got Bin Laden.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Did we talk about al-zawahari’s death?

Why bother? He’s dead.
He didn’t really make any other news headlines that I saw.

Well he used to, back in the day.

esselte said:

dv said:

esselte said:

Williams’ “The Imperial March” from Star Wars is Chopin’s “Funeral March”, sped up a bit.

Well it’s not identical but there are similarities.

I wonder, does anyone else hear the similarities between The Game of Thrones opening credit music and the closing credit music of the original Blade Runner film. Ever since I first noticed it, they sound like the practically the same piece to me.

Ever heard, “All my friends are getting married” in the QI soundtrack?

dv said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Did we talk about al-zawahari’s death?

Why bother? He’s dead.
He didn’t really make any other news headlines that I saw.

Well he used to, back in the day.

Which buildings did he fly planes into?

roughbarked said:

dv said:

roughbarked said:

Why bother? He’s dead.
He didn’t really make any other news headlines that I saw.

Well he used to, back in the day.

Which buildings did he fly planes into?

Now I remember.. there were three.

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Well he used to, back in the day.

Which buildings did he fly planes into?

Now I remember.. there were three.

plus the Cole and Bilharzia.

I knew a bloke who had a plate put in his head to repair damage done in a car rollover. Forever afterwards he was on about hhow the CIA were listening in to his brain.

ChrispenEvan said:

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

Which buildings did he fly planes into?

Now I remember.. there were three.

plus the Cole and Bilharzia.

All around a rather nasty indvidual who didn’t get to enjoy his retirement.
Should be more of it.

roughbarked said:

I knew a bloke who had a plate put in his head to repair damage done in a car rollover. Forever afterwards he was on about hhow the CIA were listening in to his brain.

“We make it clear again tonight that, no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

I knew a bloke who had a plate put in his head to repair damage done in a car rollover. Forever afterwards he was on about hhow the CIA were listening in to his brain.

“We make it clear again tonight that, no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”

The CIA don’t have time to listen to peoples’ brains. They’re already busy with monitoring all electronic communications throughout the world with the help of the NSA.

Listening to question time in the Senate on the car radio on my way back from Hamilton. (I didn’t realize there was a Question Time in the Senate…shows how much notice I take) It was very wild and shouty. I expect the Senate to be more refined than the HoR.

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

I knew a bloke who had a plate put in his head to repair damage done in a car rollover. Forever afterwards he was on about hhow the CIA were listening in to his brain.

“We make it clear again tonight that, no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”

The CIA don’t have time to listen to peoples’ brains. They’re already busy with monitoring all electronic communications throughout the world with the help of the NSA.

ECHELON

btm said:

buffy said:

btm said:

Well, that was a fun weekend. I had eye surgery on Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning the pain in the eye was so bad I passed out from it. Went to hospital and told the ophthalmologist why, and that the eye was extremely photophobic, so they shone bright lights in it while the surgeon inspected it with an ophthalmoscope. She said the surgery went well, and sent me home, refusing to comment on why it was so painful or how much worse it would get, telling me to stick to otc analgesics, although she did give me a prescription for a combined antibiotic and anaesthetic eyedrop. After a weekend of severe eye pain, I’m now relatively pain free.

The surgery felt somewhat surreal: they put a patch over the other eye, and used analgesic drops in the eye they were operating on, after first giving me a sedative (which didn’t seem to do anything. I was conscious and alert for the whole operation, even telling the anaesthetist that the eye was becoming very painful at one point,) and the anaesthetist said she would give me an injection into the eye to numb the eye and relax the muscles. I didn’t feel that injection, but couldn’t see anything for the duration of the surgery — it was completely dark, though they obviously hadn’t covered that eye up for the op.

Visual acuity in that eye (which has a severe keratoconus, and so has had very poor visual acuity since I was about 14) is now comparable to the other — but now my brain doesn’t know how to focus properly, and I can only see clearly if I close the damaged (repaired?) eye, which is more comfortable anyway, since there’s still some photophobia.

What was the surgery? Did you get a corneal graft?

No, it was cataract surgery. The keratoconus complicated the surgery, and they had to use sutures. I don’t know how they managed to improve the visual acuity through the keratoconus, but I suspect (I’ll ask them when I see them tomorrow) that the new lens has compensation built in.

The intra-ocular lens may have astigmatic correction, which would be a pretty custom made lens for keratoconus. More likely, the cataract was degrading vision by a lot. It’s like layer after layer of gauzy material to look through. Clear that away and more light gets in and goes in without scatter (veiling glare). It sort of depends on how bad your keratoconus is.

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

I knew a bloke who had a plate put in his head to repair damage done in a car rollover. Forever afterwards he was on about hhow the CIA were listening in to his brain.

“We make it clear again tonight that, no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”

The CIA don’t have time to listen to peoples’ brains. They’re already busy with monitoring all electronic communications throughout the world with the help of the NSA.

You and I know that.

buffy said:

Listening to question time in the Senate on the car radio on my way back from Hamilton. (I didn’t realize there was a Question Time in the Senate…shows how much notice I take) It was very wild and shouty. I expect the Senate to be more refined than the HoR.

Depends upon the split.

buffy said:

btm said:

buffy said:

What was the surgery? Did you get a corneal graft?

No, it was cataract surgery. The keratoconus complicated the surgery, and they had to use sutures. I don’t know how they managed to improve the visual acuity through the keratoconus, but I suspect (I’ll ask them when I see them tomorrow) that the new lens has compensation built in.

The intra-ocular lens may have astigmatic correction, which would be a pretty custom made lens for keratoconus. More likely, the cataract was degrading vision by a lot. It’s like layer after layer of gauzy material to look through. Clear that away and more light gets in and goes in without scatter (veiling glare). It sort of depends on how bad your keratoconus is.

Wish you had been my optometrist.

I thought it was windy (and chewing up the petrol as I headed into a North wind) when I drove to Hamilton. I see it was gusting into the 60s.

One of the most impressive but least reliable Formula One cars ever made, the mid 50’s BRM. The engine was only 1.5 litres but was a V-16 so it had tiny pistons and lots of revs. It ran a centrifugal supercharger from a Spitfire Merlin engine so the boost climbed very rapidly in the top half of the rev range. I’ve read that the “power doubled every two thousand revs past 6,000.” So yes, it was quite a handful to drive fast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4w22LJrLeU

Spiny Norman said:

One of the most impressive but least reliable Formula One cars ever made, the mid 50’s BRM. The engine was only 1.5 litres but was a V-16 so it had tiny pistons and lots of revs. It ran a centrifugal supercharger from a Spitfire Merlin engine so the boost climbed very rapidly in the top half of the rev range. I’ve read that the “power doubled every two thousand revs past 6,000.” So yes, it was quite a handful to drive fast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4w22LJrLeU

An incredibly fast sewing machine.

Spiny Norman said:

One of the most impressive but least reliable Formula One cars ever made, the mid 50’s BRM. The engine was only 1.5 litres but was a V-16 so it had tiny pistons and lots of revs. It ran a centrifugal supercharger from a Spitfire Merlin engine so the boost climbed very rapidly in the top half of the rev range. I’ve read that the “power doubled every two thousand revs past 6,000.” So yes, it was quite a handful to drive fast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4w22LJrLeU

Thanks. Nice sound.

I hadn’t realised that the Merlin was centrifugally supercharged. I always assumed it had a Rootes blower.

Michael V said:

Spiny Norman said:

One of the most impressive but least reliable Formula One cars ever made, the mid 50’s BRM. The engine was only 1.5 litres but was a V-16 so it had tiny pistons and lots of revs. It ran a centrifugal supercharger from a Spitfire Merlin engine so the boost climbed very rapidly in the top half of the rev range. I’ve read that the “power doubled every two thousand revs past 6,000.” So yes, it was quite a handful to drive fast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4w22LJrLeU

Thanks. Nice sound.

I hadn’t realised that the Merlin was centrifugally supercharged. I always assumed it had a Rootes blower.

This is the loudest naturally aspirated four-stroke motor I have ever heard. 67 Hp at 18,000 rpm out of a 250 six cylinder Honda, in the mid 1960s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o57JwibqCb8&t=14s

Looks like it’s gonna get wilder yet in WA.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/wa-south-coast-swell-warning-bom-dangerous-surf/101292810

Ooh…a sink hole.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/wa-south-coast-swell-warning-bom-dangerous-surf/101292810

(I’m now catching up on the news)

buffy said:

Ooh…a sink hole.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/wa-south-coast-swell-warning-bom-dangerous-surf/101292810

(I’m now catching up on the news)

Water is such a powerful agent.

Election coming up here in Victoria.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/matthew-guy-confirms-chief-of-staff-mitch-catlin-resignation/101291098

So are the judges getting more sure in their sentencing as time goes on, making the sentences longer? I remember reading about this one that the son turned in.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/texas-militia-associate-sentenced-to-seven-years-in-prison/101290426

Boss lady wants a really small car, so I’m looking at Micras, Fiat 500 etc

buffy said:

So are the judges getting more sure in their sentencing as time goes on, making the sentences longer? I remember reading about this one that the son turned in.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/texas-militia-associate-sentenced-to-seven-years-in-prison/101290426

Perhaps they started off with the small fry and work their way up to Trump.

i’ll cut my own wood, out there in that very strong wind

2.6mm rain lady just saying, it may have evaporated since

buffy said:

The intra-ocular lens may have astigmatic correction, which would be a pretty custom made lens for keratoconus. More likely, the cataract was degrading vision by a lot. It’s like layer after layer of gauzy material to look through. Clear that away and more light gets in and goes in without scatter (veiling glare). It sort of depends on how bad your keratoconus is.

I’ve been virtually unable to read even the top line of the chart since I was about 20, but the cataracts were caused by the steroids I’ve been using to combat uveitis since January last year. The cataracts were diagnosed late last year, but the keratoconus was diagnosed a couple of decades ago. Six to eight weeks before the surgery they measured the eyes, specifically including the keratoconus, and talked about using the information to produce the new lens, which is why I suspect the new lens may correct for the keratoconus.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/01/climate-endgame-risk-human-extinction-scientists-global-heating-catastrophe

Tipping points could trigger others in a cascade and some remained little studied, they said, such as the abrupt loss of stratocumulus cloud decks that could cause an additional 8C of global warming.

What? How?

Food report: Eating up stuff from the fridge tonight. Smoked chicken breast. Because I opened the pack a few days ago. Cauli cheese. Because there is leftover cheese sauce from last night. Toasted crumpet. Toasted English muffin. And because it was on special today when I did the shopping I bought a small pack of smoked salmon. I like smoked salmon. But not too much in one go.

btm said:

buffy said:

The intra-ocular lens may have astigmatic correction, which would be a pretty custom made lens for keratoconus. More likely, the cataract was degrading vision by a lot. It’s like layer after layer of gauzy material to look through. Clear that away and more light gets in and goes in without scatter (veiling glare). It sort of depends on how bad your keratoconus is.

I’ve been virtually unable to read even the top line of the chart since I was about 20, but the cataracts were caused by the steroids I’ve been using to combat uveitis since January last year. The cataracts were diagnosed late last year, but the keratoconus was diagnosed a couple of decades ago. Six to eight weeks before the surgery they measured the eyes, specifically including the keratoconus, and talked about using the information to produce the new lens, which is why I suspect the new lens may correct for the keratoconus.

That is interesting. I presume the measuring was an ultrasound scan. That is what they usually do to sort out which intra-ocular lens to use. It’s pretty recent that they have tried to correct astigmatism.

On the timeline thing, in my experience the first indication of keratoconus seems to be about mid teens, but without affecting vision. It’s something I could pick up with the retinoscope. It’s in the way the light reflects back to me from the retina, called a “scissors reflex”. Some people never get worse than that initial bit. Not everyone progresses, and no-one progresses at the same rate as anyone else.

buffy said:

btm said:

buffy said:

The intra-ocular lens may have astigmatic correction, which would be a pretty custom made lens for keratoconus. More likely, the cataract was degrading vision by a lot. It’s like layer after layer of gauzy material to look through. Clear that away and more light gets in and goes in without scatter (veiling glare). It sort of depends on how bad your keratoconus is.

I’ve been virtually unable to read even the top line of the chart since I was about 20, but the cataracts were caused by the steroids I’ve been using to combat uveitis since January last year. The cataracts were diagnosed late last year, but the keratoconus was diagnosed a couple of decades ago. Six to eight weeks before the surgery they measured the eyes, specifically including the keratoconus, and talked about using the information to produce the new lens, which is why I suspect the new lens may correct for the keratoconus.

That is interesting. I presume the measuring was an ultrasound scan. That is what they usually do to sort out which intra-ocular lens to use. It’s pretty recent that they have tried to correct astigmatism.

On the timeline thing, in my experience the first indication of keratoconus seems to be about mid teens, but without affecting vision. It’s something I could pick up with the retinoscope. It’s in the way the light reflects back to me from the retina, called a “scissors reflex”. Some people never get worse than that initial bit. Not everyone progresses, and no-one progresses at the same rate as anyone else.

Oh…are you on the waiting list for a graft? Because they would have to be careful about doing an internal refractive correction if a graft was likely to be done, because the refractive problem is usually almost entirely corneal. So correcting for a dodgy cornea, and then grafting a non dodgy cornea would mean the internal correction would no longer be right. Sorry if that sound complex.

buffy said:

buffy said:

btm said:

I’ve been virtually unable to read even the top line of the chart since I was about 20, but the cataracts were caused by the steroids I’ve been using to combat uveitis since January last year. The cataracts were diagnosed late last year, but the keratoconus was diagnosed a couple of decades ago. Six to eight weeks before the surgery they measured the eyes, specifically including the keratoconus, and talked about using the information to produce the new lens, which is why I suspect the new lens may correct for the keratoconus.

That is interesting. I presume the measuring was an ultrasound scan. That is what they usually do to sort out which intra-ocular lens to use. It’s pretty recent that they have tried to correct astigmatism.

On the timeline thing, in my experience the first indication of keratoconus seems to be about mid teens, but without affecting vision. It’s something I could pick up with the retinoscope. It’s in the way the light reflects back to me from the retina, called a “scissors reflex”. Some people never get worse than that initial bit. Not everyone progresses, and no-one progresses at the same rate as anyone else.

Oh…are you on the waiting list for a graft? Because they would have to be careful about doing an internal refractive correction if a graft was likely to be done, because the refractive problem is usually almost entirely corneal. So correcting for a dodgy cornea, and then grafting a non dodgy cornea would mean the internal correction would no longer be right. Sorry if that sound complex.

No, it was measured with a laser scan. I was misdiagnosed (by an optometrist) as myopic at 15, but the spectacles I got didn’t help; it wasn’t until about ten years later that an ophthalmologist examined my eyes and diagnosed keratoconus. The referring GP didn’t know what that was, so I had to explain it to him. I had conducted experiments that indicated that the cornea was distorted, and blocking part of it off corrected my vision, before seeing the ophthalmologist (in fact, those experiments were what prompted me to see the GP about it.)

No, I’m not on the waiting list for a graft. I’ve got a hard lens for that eye; they won’t work any more, but they warned me about that some months ago. (No, it’s not overly complex; I understand what you mean :)

nice transport into Bunbury today. Lots of rain and wind and water on the road. luckily most other drivers were sensible.

btm said:

buffy said:

buffy said:

That is interesting. I presume the measuring was an ultrasound scan. That is what they usually do to sort out which intra-ocular lens to use. It’s pretty recent that they have tried to correct astigmatism.

On the timeline thing, in my experience the first indication of keratoconus seems to be about mid teens, but without affecting vision. It’s something I could pick up with the retinoscope. It’s in the way the light reflects back to me from the retina, called a “scissors reflex”. Some people never get worse than that initial bit. Not everyone progresses, and no-one progresses at the same rate as anyone else.

Oh…are you on the waiting list for a graft? Because they would have to be careful about doing an internal refractive correction if a graft was likely to be done, because the refractive problem is usually almost entirely corneal. So correcting for a dodgy cornea, and then grafting a non dodgy cornea would mean the internal correction would no longer be right. Sorry if that sound complex.

No, it was measured with a laser scan. I was misdiagnosed (by an optometrist) as myopic at 15, but the spectacles I got didn’t help; it wasn’t until about ten years later that an ophthalmologist examined my eyes and diagnosed keratoconus. The referring GP didn’t know what that was, so I had to explain it to him. I had conducted experiments that indicated that the cornea was distorted, and blocking part of it off corrected my vision, before seeing the ophthalmologist (in fact, those experiments were what prompted me to see the GP about it.)

No, I’m not on the waiting list for a graft. I’ve got a hard lens for that eye; they won’t work any more, but they warned me about that some months ago. (No, it’s not overly complex; I understand what you mean :)

OK, so you are moderately advanced if you wear a hard CL. With the people who don’t advance much, you can get away with astigmatic soft CL. Although the vision quality is way better with a hard lens as the tears fill in the bit between the back contact lens surface and the weird front corneal surface.

(I’ll be back after I eat)

Bunnings is out of gopher wood.

sarahs mum said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/01/climate-endgame-risk-human-extinction-scientists-global-heating-catastrophe

Tipping points could trigger others in a cascade and some remained little studied, they said, such as the abrupt loss of stratocumulus cloud decks that could cause an additional 8C of global warming.

What? How?

read that quickly, may read it again later

I think just polar ice melt rate alone probably is indicative of a serious problem, I mean i’ve seen what a mess a failed thermostat in a fridge causes, i’d conjecture on a planetary scale, of a large complex system the troubles are much bigger, now it doesn’t sound like climate science I know, but that’s what I reckon, how I see it

subject the clever species, I would have thought a global pandemic response might involve some holiday periods to break transmission, slow everything down, and why not slow everything down

large part the trouble appears to be something like accelerationism, I think that is a disaster

transition said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/01/climate-endgame-risk-human-extinction-scientists-global-heating-catastrophe

Tipping points could trigger others in a cascade and some remained little studied, they said, such as the abrupt loss of stratocumulus cloud decks that could cause an additional 8C of global warming.

What? How?

read that quickly, may read it again later

I think just polar ice melt rate alone probably is indicative of a serious problem, I mean i’ve seen what a mess a failed thermostat in a fridge causes, i’d conjecture on a planetary scale, of a large complex system the troubles are much bigger, now it doesn’t sound like climate science I know, but that’s what I reckon, how I see it

subject the clever species, I would have thought a global pandemic response might involve some holiday periods to break transmission, slow everything down, and why not slow everything down

large part the trouble appears to be something like accelerationism, I think that is a disaster

half interesting read, maybe..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerationism

Bugger. First test print on the resin printer looks like it has failed. First couple of overexposed layers sounded like they worked, but none of the subsequent layers. So will have to clean out the resin tank, filter the remaining resin, and change the print settings in the light of the morning.

transition said:

transition said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/01/climate-endgame-risk-human-extinction-scientists-global-heating-catastrophe

Tipping points could trigger others in a cascade and some remained little studied, they said, such as the abrupt loss of stratocumulus cloud decks that could cause an additional 8C of global warming.

What? How?

read that quickly, may read it again later

I think just polar ice melt rate alone probably is indicative of a serious problem, I mean i’ve seen what a mess a failed thermostat in a fridge causes, i’d conjecture on a planetary scale, of a large complex system the troubles are much bigger, now it doesn’t sound like climate science I know, but that’s what I reckon, how I see it

subject the clever species, I would have thought a global pandemic response might involve some holiday periods to break transmission, slow everything down, and why not slow everything down

large part the trouble appears to be something like accelerationism, I think that is a disaster

half interesting read, maybe..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerationism

that would be a hard redactle

Dark Orange said:

Bugger. First test print on the resin printer looks like it has failed. First couple of overexposed layers sounded like they worked, but none of the subsequent layers. So will have to clean out the resin tank, filter the remaining resin, and change the print settings in the light of the morning.

Lot of faffing around before you get the settings right.

Blackpool Station by Helen Bradley.

She did loads of charming paintings recalling her Edwardian childhood, but didn’t start painting until she was in her 60s.

sarahs mum said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/01/climate-endgame-risk-human-extinction-scientists-global-heating-catastrophe

Tipping points could trigger others in a cascade and some remained little studied, they said, such as the abrupt loss of stratocumulus cloud decks that could cause an additional 8C of global warming.

What? How?

The global environment is incredibly complex with many other events interacting with it of which we know little or nothing about.

>>In the simulations, stratocumulus decks become unstable and break up into scattered clouds when CO 2 levels rise above 1,200 ppm. In addition to the warming from rising CO 2 levels, this instability triggers a surface warming of about 8 K globally and 10 K in the subtropics.

Possible climate transitions from breakup of stratocumulus
www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0310-1

>>The stratocumulous clouds broke apart and disappeared, leaving blue skies. This would cause a sudden spike in temperature as the heat that would have been reflected into space would be absorbed by the ocean instead. The loss of stratocumulus clouds would add another 8C of warming on top of the amount already predicted, the researchers concluded.

www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/stratocumulus-clouds-could-go-extinct-speeding-up-global-warming/10858850

Evening, not much to report.

Abell 3266 has an unusual shockwave dubbed the “wrong way”

Models some how cannot match observations. I’m uncomfortable with that,

So I’m going with.

Speeding Alien Spaceship’s Hyperdrive Creates Shock Wave In Space.

Fixed.

PermeateFree said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/01/climate-endgame-risk-human-extinction-scientists-global-heating-catastrophe

Tipping points could trigger others in a cascade and some remained little studied, they said, such as the abrupt loss of stratocumulus cloud decks that could cause an additional 8C of global warming.

What? How?

The global environment is incredibly complex with many other events interacting with it of which we know little or nothing about.

>>In the simulations, stratocumulus decks become unstable and break up into scattered clouds when CO 2 levels rise above 1,200 ppm. In addition to the warming from rising CO 2 levels, this instability triggers a surface warming of about 8 K globally and 10 K in the subtropics.

Possible climate transitions from breakup of stratocumulus
www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0310-1

>>The stratocumulous clouds broke apart and disappeared, leaving blue skies. This would cause a sudden spike in temperature as the heat that would have been reflected into space would be absorbed by the ocean instead. The loss of stratocumulus clouds would add another 8C of warming on top of the amount already predicted, the researchers concluded.

www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/stratocumulus-clouds-could-go-extinct-speeding-up-global-warming/10858850

well that would be fucked wouldn’t it.

After some interesting weather overnight, I was awoken at 5am by some random girl calling the fire brigade because a tree had fallen over on a road 25km away, I mumbled something about calling the shire 24hr line and went back to sleep. The high score was 130+kmh at 1am.

I went out this morning to fetch my garden furniture and potplants from their final resting places, and check for damage, but all good on the Western front. The wind is still at 80-100kmh, but that seems almost like a gentle breeze now. Also just got home from the dentist with a new filling, and feel like that doctor who episode where he has just regenerated and licks inside his own mouth, and says, “Hmmm, new teeth, that’s weird”.

PermeateFree said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/01/climate-endgame-risk-human-extinction-scientists-global-heating-catastrophe

Tipping points could trigger others in a cascade and some remained little studied, they said, such as the abrupt loss of stratocumulus cloud decks that could cause an additional 8C of global warming.

What? How?

The global environment is incredibly complex with many other events interacting with it of which we know little or nothing about.

>>In the simulations, stratocumulus decks become unstable and break up into scattered clouds when CO 2 levels rise above 1,200 ppm. In addition to the warming from rising CO 2 levels, this instability triggers a surface warming of about 8 K globally and 10 K in the subtropics.

Possible climate transitions from breakup of stratocumulus
www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0310-1

>>The stratocumulous clouds broke apart and disappeared, leaving blue skies. This would cause a sudden spike in temperature as the heat that would have been reflected into space would be absorbed by the ocean instead. The loss of stratocumulus clouds would add another 8C of warming on top of the amount already predicted, the researchers concluded.

www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/stratocumulus-clouds-could-go-extinct-speeding-up-global-warming/10858850

https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3997236

Kingy said:

After some interesting weather overnight, I was awoken at 5am by some random girl calling the fire brigade because a tree had fallen over on a road 25km away, I mumbled something about calling the shire 24hr line and went back to sleep. The high score was 130+kmh at 1am.

I went out this morning to fetch my garden furniture and potplants from their final resting places, and check for damage, but all good on the Western front. The wind is still at 80-100kmh, but that seems almost like a gentle breeze now. Also just got home from the dentist with a new filling, and feel like that doctor who episode where he has just regenerated and licks inside his own mouth, and says, “Hmmm, new teeth, that’s weird”.

Any power outages?

sarahs mum said:

PermeateFree said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/01/climate-endgame-risk-human-extinction-scientists-global-heating-catastrophe

Tipping points could trigger others in a cascade and some remained little studied, they said, such as the abrupt loss of stratocumulus cloud decks that could cause an additional 8C of global warming.

What? How?

The global environment is incredibly complex with many other events interacting with it of which we know little or nothing about.

>>In the simulations, stratocumulus decks become unstable and break up into scattered clouds when CO 2 levels rise above 1,200 ppm. In addition to the warming from rising CO 2 levels, this instability triggers a surface warming of about 8 K globally and 10 K in the subtropics.

Possible climate transitions from breakup of stratocumulus
www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0310-1

>>The stratocumulous clouds broke apart and disappeared, leaving blue skies. This would cause a sudden spike in temperature as the heat that would have been reflected into space would be absorbed by the ocean instead. The loss of stratocumulus clouds would add another 8C of warming on top of the amount already predicted, the researchers concluded.

www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/stratocumulus-clouds-could-go-extinct-speeding-up-global-warming/10858850

well that would be fucked wouldn’t it.

If that happened there would be few if any people to witness it.

ChrispenEvan said:

PermeateFree said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/01/climate-endgame-risk-human-extinction-scientists-global-heating-catastrophe

Tipping points could trigger others in a cascade and some remained little studied, they said, such as the abrupt loss of stratocumulus cloud decks that could cause an additional 8C of global warming.

What? How?

The global environment is incredibly complex with many other events interacting with it of which we know little or nothing about.

>>In the simulations, stratocumulus decks become unstable and break up into scattered clouds when CO 2 levels rise above 1,200 ppm. In addition to the warming from rising CO 2 levels, this instability triggers a surface warming of about 8 K globally and 10 K in the subtropics.

Possible climate transitions from breakup of stratocumulus
www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0310-1

>>The stratocumulous clouds broke apart and disappeared, leaving blue skies. This would cause a sudden spike in temperature as the heat that would have been reflected into space would be absorbed by the ocean instead. The loss of stratocumulus clouds would add another 8C of warming on top of the amount already predicted, the researchers concluded.

www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/stratocumulus-clouds-could-go-extinct-speeding-up-global-warming/10858850

https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3997236

aaah.

Galaxy cluster Abell 3266 contains plasma shock wave, fossil remains of black hole’s feeding frenzy

Fossil remains of a black hole’s past feeding frenzy have been discovered deep within one of the largest galaxy clusters in our sky.

Astronomers also spotted a plasma shock wave that defies physics, and a halo of radio energy within the same galaxy cluster.

more…

Tau.Neutrino said:

Galaxy cluster Abell 3266 contains plasma shock wave, fossil remains of black hole’s feeding frenzy

Fossil remains of a black hole’s past feeding frenzy have been discovered deep within one of the largest galaxy clusters in our sky.

Astronomers also spotted a plasma shock wave that defies physics, and a halo of radio energy within the same galaxy cluster.

more…

Glad I don’t have to sort out that mess.

Bubblecar said:

Kingy said:

After some interesting weather overnight, I was awoken at 5am by some random girl calling the fire brigade because a tree had fallen over on a road 25km away, I mumbled something about calling the shire 24hr line and went back to sleep. The high score was 130+kmh at 1am.

I went out this morning to fetch my garden furniture and potplants from their final resting places, and check for damage, but all good on the Western front. The wind is still at 80-100kmh, but that seems almost like a gentle breeze now. Also just got home from the dentist with a new filling, and feel like that doctor who episode where he has just regenerated and licks inside his own mouth, and says, “Hmmm, new teeth, that’s weird”.

Any power outages?

No, the power supply here in this particular area is supplied through giant towers taller than trees, and then underground. A lot of the area around town did have power loss due to trees falling on power lines.

Within less than 150 years the Earth’s climate could warm to a level similar to 56 million years ago, when crocodiles swam in the Arctic and parts of the equator were uninhabitable for warm-blooded creatures, according to new climate change modelling.

The study published in Nature Geoscience models how very high levels of CO2 affect the formation of stratocumulus clouds – the low, flat decks that cover about 20 per cent of subtropical oceans and reflect about 30 per cent the sun’s light.

After two years of supercomputer calculations, the researchers observed a sudden transition when the simulated CO2 in the atmosphere passed 1200 parts per million. The stratocumulous clouds broke apart and disappeared, leaving blue skies.

This would cause a sudden spike in temperature as the heat that would have been reflected into space would be absorbed by the ocean instead.

The loss of stratocumulus clouds would add another 8C of warming on top of the amount already predicted, the researchers concluded.

Under this scenario, the Earth would warm 14C above the pre-industrial level.

That’s a huge amount. Remember that a 4C increase in temperature has been described as “the end of human civilisation in its current form”.

That alone would see meters of sea-level rise, the destruction of the world’s coral reefs, a massive loss of animal species, and catastrophic extreme weather events.

It is difficult to imagine what would happen then if the temperature were to jump 8C on top of the warming that had already occurred.

Maybe the best guide is the temperature on Earth 56 million years ago, when seawater was 40C in the tropics, and crocodile-like creatures were thriving in the Arctic.

When could this happen?
Atmospheric CO2 concentration could pass 1200ppm within about 100-150 years if we keep burning fossil fuels at the current rate, according to Tapio Schneider at the California Institute of Technology, who led the research.

“I don’t think we will get anywhere close to it,” he said in a press release.

“I think and hope that technological changes will slow carbon emissions so that we do not actually reach such high CO2 concentrations.

But our results show that there are dangerous climate change thresholds that we had been unaware of.

Professor Mark Howden, Director of the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University, told Hack the world could pass 1200ppm if countries failed to meet the emissions reduction targets they committed to in the Paris Agreement.

“I think what these studies say is we simply do not want to go there,” he said.

“The potential feedbacks which are out of our control then become very worrisome.”

“We want to be keeping our levels of carbon dioxide well below those levels.”

Why are we only learning this now?
Up to now, climate modelling has struggled to predict how increases in temperature would affect cloud formation, simply because clouds are very hard to model.

The researchers partially solved this problem by using a very powerful supercomputer and modelling a small patch of ocean and marine clouds.

The study may also explain why, 56 million years ago, the planet went through such a dramatic warming period. The temperatures during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum were more extreme than climate models suggested they should have been, based on factors like CO2 concentration and plant cover.

“This is a first exploration of this particular issue and it’s a really good demonstration of the ability of models to operate at much, much finer scales, which allows the dynamics of clouds to be represented in these models,” Professor Howden told Hack.

“I think this is a very useful step forward in terms of the science.”

Posted 28 Feb 201928 Feb 2019, updated 28 Feb 2019

Kingy said:

Bubblecar said:

Kingy said:

After some interesting weather overnight, I was awoken at 5am by some random girl calling the fire brigade because a tree had fallen over on a road 25km away, I mumbled something about calling the shire 24hr line and went back to sleep. The high score was 130+kmh at 1am.

I went out this morning to fetch my garden furniture and potplants from their final resting places, and check for damage, but all good on the Western front. The wind is still at 80-100kmh, but that seems almost like a gentle breeze now. Also just got home from the dentist with a new filling, and feel like that doctor who episode where he has just regenerated and licks inside his own mouth, and says, “Hmmm, new teeth, that’s weird”.

Any power outages?

No, the power supply here in this particular area is supplied through giant towers taller than trees, and then underground. A lot of the area around town did have power loss due to trees falling on power lines.

Luckily our winds tomorrow won’t be that dramatic or I’d expect widespread outages.

Bubblecar said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Galaxy cluster Abell 3266 contains plasma shock wave, fossil remains of black hole’s feeding frenzy

Fossil remains of a black hole’s past feeding frenzy have been discovered deep within one of the largest galaxy clusters in our sky.

Astronomers also spotted a plasma shock wave that defies physics, and a halo of radio energy within the same galaxy cluster.

more…

Glad I don’t have to sort out that mess.

It’s interesting seeing how astronomers are developing technics of how galaxies interact with other.

I’d better go and make breakfast before I change my mind.

plenty frogs out there, 5mm rain shortly ago

ChrispenEvan said:

PermeateFree said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/01/climate-endgame-risk-human-extinction-scientists-global-heating-catastrophe

Tipping points could trigger others in a cascade and some remained little studied, they said, such as the abrupt loss of stratocumulus cloud decks that could cause an additional 8C of global warming.

What? How?

The global environment is incredibly complex with many other events interacting with it of which we know little or nothing about.

>>In the simulations, stratocumulus decks become unstable and break up into scattered clouds when CO 2 levels rise above 1,200 ppm. In addition to the warming from rising CO 2 levels, this instability triggers a surface warming of about 8 K globally and 10 K in the subtropics.

Possible climate transitions from breakup of stratocumulus
www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0310-1

>>The stratocumulous clouds broke apart and disappeared, leaving blue skies. This would cause a sudden spike in temperature as the heat that would have been reflected into space would be absorbed by the ocean instead. The loss of stratocumulus clouds would add another 8C of warming on top of the amount already predicted, the researchers concluded.

www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/stratocumulus-clouds-could-go-extinct-speeding-up-global-warming/10858850

https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3997236

Don’t think it is the same, the above is a novel and nothing to do with scientific investigation.

I’m surprised there are no photographs of Mary Shelley. I guess not everyone was into that fad.

dv said:

I’m surprised there are no photographs of Mary Shelley. I guess not everyone was into that fad.

She was a bit contrary.

dv said:

I’m surprised there are no photographs of Mary Shelley. I guess not everyone was into that fad.

Maybe she wasn’t particularly photogenic?

Dark Orange said:

dv said:

I’m surprised there are no photographs of Mary Shelley. I guess not everyone was into that fad.

Maybe she wasn’t particularly photogenic?

Like a vampire

dv said:

Dark Orange said:

dv said:

I’m surprised there are no photographs of Mary Shelley. I guess not everyone was into that fad.

Maybe she wasn’t particularly photogenic?

Like a vampire

that’s photophobic.

ChrispenEvan said:

dv said:

Dark Orange said:

Maybe she wasn’t particularly photogenic?

Like a vampire

that’s photophobic.

Hah.

The heats of the 100m track are one now, could be Bruce Mcavernay’s last games.

Peak Warming Man said:

The heats of the 100m track are one now, could be Bruce Mcavernay’s last games.

He’s had a very catholic sport calling career.

“Newcastle Thunder winger Jack Johnson wants to return to rugby league in the near future despite suffering the pain of an exploded testicle in a training mishap last week.”

Dear oh dear.

Sorry. Don’t have the ‘Roe vs Wade’ thread bookmarked:

…

Major legal fights loom over abortion pills, travel out of state
The reversal of Roe v. Wade after nearly 50 years is expected to trigger a new set of legal challenges for which there is little precedent

By Ann E. Marimow, Laurie McGinley and Caroline Kitchener
July 31, 2022 at 6:42 p.m. EDT

The Supreme Court’s three liberal justices, in denouncing their colleagues’ decision to eliminate the nationwide right to abortion, warned last month that returning this polarizing issue to the states would give rise to greater controversy in the months and years to come.

Among the looming disputes, they noted: Can states ban mail-order medication used to terminate pregnancies or bar their residents from traveling elsewhere to do so?

“Far from removing the court from the abortion issue,” Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan wrote in dissent, “the majority puts the court at the center of the coming ‘interjurisdictional abortion wars.’ ”

The overturning of Roe v. Wade after nearly 50 years is expected to trigger a new set of legal challenges for which there is little precedent, observers say, further roiling the nation’s bitter political landscape and compounding chaos as Republican-led states move quickly to curtail access to reproductive care. It is possible, if not probable, that one or both of these questions will eventually work its way back to the high court.

“Judges and scholars, and most recently the Supreme Court, have long claimed that abortion law will become simpler if Roe is overturned,” law professors David S. Cohen, Greer Donley and Rachel Rebouché wrote in a timely draft academic article cited by the dissenting justices, “but that is woefully naive.”

As a result of the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, abortions — both the surgical procedure and via medication — are banned or mostly banned in 13 states. Several others are expected to follow in coming weeks.

The Biden administration has pledged to ensure access to abortion medication, which is used in more than half of all terminated pregnancies in the United States, and prohibit states from preventing their residents from traveling out-of-state for care. But a month after the Dobbs ruling, administration officials are still debating how they can deliver on that promise beyond the president’s executive order to protect access. A White House meeting Friday with public-interest lawyers was designed to encourage legal representation for those seeking or offering reproductive health services.

Democratic leaders and liberal activists have called on President Biden to take bolder action, especially on medication abortion. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) said in an interview that he has directly urged the president to make clear that abortion providers in states controlled by Democrats should be able to ship pills to patients anywhere in the country, whether or not the patient’s state has enacted a ban. Pritzker advised the president to assert federal authority over the U.S. mail system, he said, and specify that no one will be prosecuted for prescribing or receiving them.

“People ought to be able to receive their medication in the privacy of their own home even if they live in a state where the procedure is not allowed,” Pritzker added, saying Biden appeared “very receptive” to the idea.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pritzker’s characterization of the conversation.

Republican state attorneys general are preparing for a court fight, said Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), accusing Biden and the White House of exhibiting a “consistent disrespect for the law and the constitution and the Supreme Court.”

“We’re anticipating that he’s going to do this,” Marshall said.

Abortion pills
Already, the manufacturer of the abortion medication mifepristone has sued the state of Mississippi and promised that additional lawsuits would be filed in other states. It remains to be seen whether the Biden administration will intervene in one of those cases or file its own legal challenges.

The Justice Department has activated a “reproductive rights task force” to monitor and push back on state and local efforts to further restrict abortion, but officials have not fully detailed their plans. Attorney General Merrick Garland said during Friday’s White House event that “when we learn that states are infringing on federal protections, we will consider every tool at our disposal to affirm those protections — including filing affirmative suits, filing statements of interest, and intervening in private litigation.”

The Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone in 2000, finding it safe and effective to end an early pregnancy. The medication, now authorized for the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, is used with a second drug, misoprostol, to induce an abortion.

Among the unresolved questions is whether FDA approval of medication preempts state action. Legal experts say it is unclear whether the federal government would succeed if it challenged state restrictions on abortion medication, and that it will depend on how those measures are written.

Garland said soon after the Supreme Court overturned Roe that states may not ban mifepristone “based on a disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment.” The agency is charged with evaluating the safety and efficacy of drugs, and federal law generally preempts state law when two measures are in conflict.

Melissa Murray, a New York University law professor, said it was important for Garland to make a strong statement but that it is not a panacea in uncertain legal terrain.

“Even though the administration has said states can’t ban mifepristone on the grounds that it is somehow unsafe, that doesn’t mean they can’t ban it for other purposes. That’s an open question,” said Murray, who was written extensively about reproductive rights.

An administration heath official said the White House and the FDA realize that if states succeed in banning the abortion pill, or imposing sharp restrictions, the federal government’s authority on a range of medications could be undermined.

“If states want to ban vaccines, can they?” asked the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the issue. “What if a state were run by Scientologists?” the official said, referring to the movement that has long opposed psychiatric medications.

The FDA lifted some restrictions on abortion pills in December, permitting providers to send medication through the mail in states that do not prohibit telemedicine for abortions. At least 19 states ban the use of telehealth for medication abortion, and Republican lawmakers in more than a half-dozen states have introduced or passed legislation to ban or severely restrict abortion medication, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

A case study
The federal case in Mississippi, filed before the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Dobbs, offers a window into the coming legal disputes over abortion pill access.

GenBioPro, which sells mifepristone, initially sued Mississippi in 2020 over additional requirements the state imposed, including a waiting period and counseling. The office of Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch ® said in recent court filings that the Supreme Court’s decision allowing states to ban abortion strengthens the state’s position. The case is not about the drug’s safety but the state’s authority over abortion “regardless of the means by which the abortion is induced,” Fitch’s office wrote.

Mississippi’s trigger law, which took effect in July and bans nearly all abortions, makes no distinction between surgical abortions or abortions induced by medication, the office said.

Gwyn Williams, an attorney for GenBioPro, said the FDA has the power to decide which medications are safe. Individual states, she said, “do not get to legislate away the power Congress granted to FDA.” The company, she said, intends to file additional legal challenges in other states.

Legal experts point to one of the few cases to raise similar questions. In 2014, Massachusetts tried to ban an FDA-approved opioid called Zohydro. Then-FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg recalled recently that she was deeply worried by the “rationale and the precedent it could set.” At the time, she warned Massachusetts officials that the move could prompt other states to ban “such vital medical products as birth control or RU-486,” the abortion pill.

A District Court judge sided with the opioid manufacturer and said the FDA’s approval preempted state law. Massachusetts withdrew its regulations and did not appeal, meaning other judges are not required to follow the same legal reasoning.

Lawrence O. Gostin, director of Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, said FDA approval of drugs, including in the abortion context, “should supersede any state restrictions” because the agency is responsible for setting a national uniform standard for what drug patients can get access to in the United States.

The Biden administration has an “extraordinarily strong legal claim,” he said. “Any other decision could open a floodgate of states making their own choices of FDA-approved medication, and that would be disastrous for the health and safety of Americans.”

Even so, he said the same conservative majority of the Supreme Court that erased the constitutional right to abortion “might just say, states license medical providers and can make judgments about what those providers can and can’t do.”

Ed Whelan, a fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, said federal preemption does not mean states are barred from dictating how — or whether — certain drugs can be used.

“Assume that the FDA approved a drug for use in physician-assisted suicide,” he wrote recently in National Review. “Why would anyone imagine that FDA approval overrode state laws barring physician-assisted suicide? Why should it be any different here?”

Out-of-state travel
In a separate opinion concurring with the Supreme Court majority in June, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote that the court’s decision does not mean a state may block a resident from traveling to another jurisdiction to obtain an abortion. He characterized the legal question as “not especially difficult as a constitutional matter” based on the “constitutional right to interstate travel.”

But Republican state lawmakers and national antiabortion groups have put forward plans to restrict out-of-state abortions and modeled those proposals on the Texas six-week abortion ban crafted to evade judicial review. A Missouri bill, which failed to pass during the 2022 legislative session, would have imposed civil liability on anyone who helped a resident travel out of state to obtain an abortion. South Dakota’s governor has said she is open to such proposals, and an Arkansas senator has also expressed interest in similar legislation.

The Justice Department has emphasized that the Supreme Court’s ruling does not prevent women from traveling across state lines to terminate a pregnancy. Citing “bedrock constitutional principles,” Garland said individuals residing in states where access to reproductive care is banned “must remain free to seek that care in states where it is legal.”

Legal experts, though, say these constitutional defenses are subject to debate and have not been tested in court. Even if the Justice Department filed a lawsuit challenging such restrictions, litigation takes time.

“It’s not going to be instantaneous,” said Murray, the law professor. “In the meantime, what you have is a landscape of confusion, chaos and uncertainty where patients don’t know what their rights are and physicians don’t know how their medical judgment will interact with laws on the ground. That climate of fear and confusion can be just as effective as an outright ban.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/31/abortion-medication-lawsuits/?

Peak Warming Man said:

“Newcastle Thunder winger Jack Johnson wants to return to rugby league in the near future despite suffering the pain of an exploded testicle in a training mishap last week.”

Dear oh dear.

Isn’t that what happened to the “Manly” 7?

The Smith’s Crisps chip company is now into its third advertising campaign in as many years with a totally different ad and catch-phrase. Some of you may have seen the ad where a crowd of people frightens away a grizzly bear. Now there’s a new ad and catchphrase in about 2 months.

I wonder if their head of marketing has been shown the door.

Thanks Sibeen.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Thanks Sibeen.

Oi! Enough of that!!!

Witty Rejoinder said:

The Smith’s Crisps chip company is now into its third advertising campaign in as many years with a totally different ad and catch-phrase. Some of you may have seen the ad where a crowd of people frightens away a grizzly bear. Now there’s a new ad and catchphrase in about 2 months.

I wonder if their head of marketing has been shown the door.

I’ll take on their idiotic job and ludicrous pay package, and just bring back Gobbledok.

Then I’ll retire, pay off my mortgage, and laugh all the way to the bank.

Someone finally translated one of those silly rap battles for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6LKNTJN3Ug

Watching the Artistic Gymnastics on the Teev and the Aussie in the floor final was born missing his right pectoral muscle. On the right:

Bubblecar said:

Kingy said:

Bubblecar said:

Any power outages?

No, the power supply here in this particular area is supplied through giant towers taller than trees, and then underground. A lot of the area around town did have power loss due to trees falling on power lines.

Luckily our winds tomorrow won’t be that dramatic or I’d expect widespread outages.

The wind is getting up here now. Mount William in the Grampians gusted 109 at 9.00pm.

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDV60801/IDV60801.94833.shtml

Across the plains here, I think we are doing 80ish with the between wind about 50ish. I’m going to bed soon to listen to the trees. And maybe next door’s dead tree falling over. If it is going to do it, it would be best to do it with a wind from the North – which is what we’ve got at the moment. That would lay it down between buildings, I think. An East wind would put it on my shed. A South wind would put it on next door’s house and probably hit us with some bits and pieces as it shattered. A West wind would put it towards their other side neighbour, but I think it would get caught up in some trees and not hit that house.