mastodon 4.7.2retired IT guy living in the Dandenongs in Melbourne.
I do a lot of landscaping, building rock walls. Learning how to identify native plants and travel when I can.
I am proud to be an climate change alarmist because when then situation is alarming then responsible thing to do is ring the alarms.
#Atheist
Houthis have taken the port of Mocha which is inside the Red Sea. This has caused oil prices to rise about 20%. The Houthis now have effective control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait. So diesel and petrol prices will continue to rise.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/10/houthis-capture-yemeni-town-of-mocha-why-it-matters
If only there was some kind of way to power our road transport without using diesel or gasoline. But I know that will never happen. There isn't an automotive engineer in the world with the genius to build a motor that generates maximum torque at 0rpm and can run off energy stored in some kind of energy storage.
What we need to do is use AI to build a giant robot army to invade all those oil producing countries and to enforce our god given right to that light sweet crude. How else can I drive my giant Ford truck with it's 6.5 litre turbo diesel motor down to the local shops to buy frozen pizza? This is an emergency. There is no other way.
#AI #Yeman #Houthi #EV #Oil #MiddleEast
Somebody help me. What is the collective noun for a group of King parrots? I'd suggest a squabble of parrots because that's all they were doing. They seemed mostly uninterested in my offer of a millet spray. They just chose my balcony as a spot to argue amongst themselves. A few headed off to feed on the nearby conifers and pittosporum.
#wildlife #birds #Australian
This is my happy place. After working in the yard I love to sit in the shade in that chair late in the afternoon sipping a beer. I can hear the faint hum of traffic down in the valley but mostly it's just the birdies and the wind in the trees. It's just so peaceful.
#MyHappyPlace #Gabion #Sheds
Meanwhile in Gaza the IDF keeps on murdering children.
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/4/10/headlines/9_year_old_palestinian_girl_shot_dead_in_front_of_classmates_in_gazas_beit_lahia
#Gaza
What kind of fresh bullshit is this? Looks like my local supermarket is going to introduce trolleys that require a login to use. Fuck that for a joke.
Back in regional Qld visiting family after a long absence I am continually surprised by the friendliness of total strangers. It seems like everywhere I go people just say Good Morning or Hello. I was just sitting on a bench in a public park, minding my own grumpy business, while 3 different people wandered past, smiled and said Good Morning.
#Smile #Qld #MiriamVale
This was in the town of Miriam Vale where I had stopped for a coffee and muffin. Lovely little spot.
I noticed that travellers were assembling at the train station so I wandered down to take a few photos.
Queensland is justifiably proud of its fully electric tilt train that travels the 640 klm from Brisbane to Rockhampton. While other states continue to rely on diesel locomotives, the tilt train is not concerned with diesel fuel prices or shortages.
#Trains
Fascinating short video about Copper nanotubes by Dr Hannah Fry
This could video could benefit from alt text as it displays an image without explanation.
The thing is that nanotubes is generally abbreviated to NT. The symbol for Copper is Cu. Bear in mind that English is not the first language of the Chinese scientists who wrote this paper. They could have abbreviated Copper nanotubes to NTCu, but instead they decided to put Copper first. So we now have CuNTs as the abbreviation.
https://youtube.com/shorts/vUnPBKAFFI4?si=Srji2Annd6YvyrN7
#Science #HannahFry
My neighbour has taken up bee-keeping. A few weeks ago he bought over some honeycombs. I left it sit on my kitchen bench for a few weeks. Occasionally I would open the container and scoop up some honey with my fingers. But today I started googling how to separate the honey from the beeswax. Unless the neighbour starts giving me a lot more it probably won't be worth too much effort. I think I ended up with about 200ml of honey. And I know for certain that there is no added sugar, unlike those supermarket brands .
#Honey #Bees
After an eye appointment to check for cataracts I had to wait around until those eye drops wore off and I could see properly again. So I decided to spend that time in a nearby public library.
I grabbed a newspaper which turned out to be The Australian. And I have great news to report from Australia's most authoritative journal of record.
Firstly the IDF says that they have almost completely destroyed the leadership of the IRGC. The IDF also reports that Iranian soldiers are refusing orders to get up out of their bunkers to launch missiles because they are afraid of being targeted. There was no mention of damage to Tel Aviv or southern Lebanon so things must be going great there.
So, if that's the case then the war should be over by tomorrow. Isn't that great? Maybe I should start reading Murdoch's newspapers more regularly. Fantasyland is a much happier place to live.
#IranWar
Doing the grey nomad thing. I was half way between Clermont and Alpha in central west Queensland towing my campervan on corrugated dirt roads when a vehicle coming up from behind alerted me to a problem. My trailer electric link had come loose and was trailing in the dirt.
But I was lucky enough to find Cody at the Pearce garage in Jericho who was happy to interrupt his other work and get me on my way again.
He also does the roadside assist for the area. Great mechanic and all round nice guy.
#GreyNomad #Mechanic #AutoElectrician #Travel #Outback
I met an Israeli in a camping ground today. But I didn't mention the war.
I saw a dead humpback washed up on the beach at Mon Repos today. They said that it died from propeller strike. I could clearly see the slash on the tail but I couldn't see the head. Oh well, at least the marine scavengers will get a good dinner. Sharks and crabs gotta eat too. It wasn't very big, maybe 3 or 4 metres, so probably very young.
Park rangers pegged out barrier tape. Although I am pretty sure that crabs and sharks could swim under there.
#Whale #Humpback #MonRepos
It's really ironic that you can only discover that your roof leaks when it's raining. Because it's too wet to climb up there and fix it. It's dripping right on top of me as I sit at my PC. Time to sit in my lounge chair and browse that other smaller internet that lives on my phone.
I have just had a bizarre retail experience. I went to a camping store to buy a jump-starter. For those of you who don't know what that is: it's just a lithium ion battery powerful enough to jumpstart your car if you have a flat battery. I got caught out in a remote campsite with a flat battery recently and the guy who helped had a jumpstart pack. They're like a bigger phone power pack but with cable connectors to do the job of a car battery. Anyway, it worked perfectly so I decided to buy my own. Much better idea than a pair of jumper cables because you don't need another car to connect to. I recommend them to everyone. For $AU80 they're easy to use and better than waiting for roadside assistance to turn up.
My battery went flat because after returning to camp because I decided to play some music. That involved opening the rear door of the 4WD and turning the ignition key to accessory. I forgot that the car air con switch was still on. So while sitting around the fire, drinking a few beers and screaming "No way, get fucked, Fuck Off" to Doc Neeson's question of "Am I ever gunna see your face again?" my air con was draining the car battery.
So, upon returning home, I went to this shop to buy the thing. I saw them on display for $75 so I grabbed one and took it to the counter. I was ready when the sales clerk tried to up sell an LED headlamp. I didn't really listen to his spiel, I just declined and repeated that I only wanted the jump starter. He then said that it would be cheaper if I took both. Finally he just went and got a headlamp and told me that both together were cheaper than the one single item. Effectively they were paying me $5 to take this bloody LED headlamp. I already have two at home. I pointed out that this business strategy seemed likely to end in bankruptcy but he shrugged because he was just an employee of a huge retail chain and DNGAF.
#Camping #LED
Maybe the purpose is to get the customer to take away excess stock. The headlamp itself requires an AA battery. It doesn't have any built in Li ion battery with USB. So it's probably not a big seller. Everything is Li ion with USB recharging these days.
It reminds me of another interesting story of the time I had to go over to Shelby ville. I was wearing an onion in my belt which was the style at the time ...
@publicnewsfeed@mastodon.social Shouldn't we first block the nations that started the war like the US and Israel?
An Algae bloom has caused the closure of Israeli desalination plants. These algae blooms in the eastern Mediterranean are not unprecedented but they are getting bigger and badder. They originate in the Nile delta, nourished by warm waters and fertiliser runoff. But this time around the Israelis have destroyed most of Gaza's sewage treatment plants so human waste is seeping directly into the ocean feeding the algae bloom which, in turn, is clogging the filters of the desal plants.
https://themedialine.org/headlines/nile-delta-algae-bloom-shuts-down-israels-desalination-plants/
