PHOTOS FRIDAY

joe6pack Uncategorized

During the week there was a very interesting display of Photo,s from Bushfirebill and some discussion about what lenses were used and there respective merits. All over the top of my head but all very informative. It,s Friday so put up your favorite photos no matter what the subject .here are a few of mine taken with disposable cameras with some sort of film.

Bluey Takeoff

bluey-in-flight20170303_172330-1

More  Freeloaders20170303_172812.jpg

The  addition to the rustic pool shack with Ned’s Hill in the background.

20170303_173152

Beat them pics with your fancy 3’2 5″9 Lenses

 

 

491 thoughts on “PHOTOS FRIDAY”

  1. Section 4 . . . Cartoon Corner

    Matt Davidson on Andrew’s shared ownership plan.

    Ron Tandberg with a confronting question for Abbott.

    Alan Moir has done a great job on Hanson and the anti-vaxxer brigade!

    Broelman on Turnbull’s “vaccination” experience.

    David Rowe outdoes himself yet again.

    Mark Knight takes pity on Dan Andrews.
    http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/d481861c57ea709a9c509ae85892067b?width=1024
    Yes, Bill Leak is still at it!
    http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/b9f19d6b30854681d3815d9e118c352f

  6. Pauline Hanson has swallowed some of her words on vaccination. She thought there was a pre-jab allergy test, but there isn’t. She still reckons it’s up to parents to decide (which is stupid, in my opinion).

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/i-was-wrong-pauline-hanson-apologises-for-controversial-vaccine-allergy-remarks-20170308-guty1m.html

    But I do have a bone to pick with the doctor cited in the article, head of the AMA, Michael Gannon.

    “This fatuous idea that parents can spend half an hour on Wikipedia and come to a greater understanding of the issues than their doctor and the accumulated wisdom of all the world’s medical scientists is ludicrous,” Dr Gannon said.

    OK, fair enough… half an hour on Wikipedia really is no substitute for the collective wisdom of medical science,plus a century or more of frontline experience in the effectiveness of vaccination.

    But is 10 seconds listening to Dr. Michael Gannon telling you not to spend half an hour on Wikipedia a logical counter? Gannon is basically saying, “Don’t believe them, they’re crackpots. Believe me, I’m a scientist“… the problem is, of course, that the anti-vaccers believe the crackpots are scientists too.

    Better scientists than the real scientists.

    It’s a case of “My scientist is as good as yours, better actually, because he’s exposing your lies.”

    Laymen (which is most of us) are faced with a bewildering array of “information” (for want of a better word) nowadays. Dress up “information” snazzily enough and it looks like science. Run it through the Gish Gallop mill and it comes out smelling like a good reason to keep your kids away from the doctor’s surgery.

    But dress up real science snazzily enough and it looks like science, too. When the very core of the anti-whateverist argument is that the true scientists who promote it are:

    * working for the United Nations,
    * Rothschilds employees hell-bent on world domination,
    * bludgers sucking off the public tit by promoting the latest “fad”,
    * or otherwise untrustworthy charlatans just going along with the flow

    then them just asserting they are right (usually because there’s lots of them and they all agree) is pretty-well proof that they are lying. The more they assert their authoritywithout giving proof (indeed sometimes running away from proof) the more they look exactly like the alleged fakirs who are promoting the opposite view.

    What is in doubt about vaccination is not the message, but the medium, the delivery system. Whatever Dr. Michael Gannon says, well, he would say that, wouldn’t he? He works for Big Pharma, he gets a fee every time someone has their little Nicholas or Jemmima vaccinated. But if he (or someone like him) ever lost a patient, gave a public health job to a fake doctor, or made a mistake then that proves he can be wrong, and that he’s probably wrong about vaccination being a good thing. QED.

    The same applies, of course, to Climate Science. Whenever there’s a big heatwave or a giant storm out of season most qualified scientists run a mile from saying it happened because of climate change. They don’t want to be caught sticking their necks out. Because they really might lose their grants or their jobs even (e.g. CSIRO, commissions of inquiry into the BOM). And anyway, it’s just their opinion, and the opinion of an untrustworthy person is an untrustworthy opinion. It induces self-reinforcing scepticism in the minds of doubters.

    And if the scientist has ever advised Labor on Climate or vaccination, look out!

    There appears to be a need for a new tack in rebutting anti-vaccinationistas and anti-Climate Science doubters. Throw in anti-homeopathy and I hope you get the picture.

    Simply asserting one authority as being superior to another authority gets you nowhere when the core point is that your moral right to assert your authority is compromised to start with. We need a far more sophisticated technique of persuasion than simply asserting something is true because the system believes it to be true… even if it is true.

    Because it’s the system itself that’s in doubt… and in some cases not without good reason.

    • “Simply asserting one authority as being superior to another authority gets you nowhere”

      It’s as if doctors felt threatened by the internet. I know mine might. He told me not to look up anything medical. I suppose he doesn’t want me to get upset or confused …

  7. Hanson apologies – well, sort of.

    ‘I was wrong’: Pauline Hanson apologises for controversial vaccine allergy remarks
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/i-was-wrong-pauline-hanson-apologises-for-controversial-vaccine-allergy-remarks-20170308-guty1m.html

    Saying the well-deserved criticism was ‘overblown’ and saying you thought you read something but it turns out you didn’t is not an ‘apology’. It’s a grudging attempt to get the media to talk about something – anything – else.

    Hanson says things to get attention. This time the attention was not what she hoped for. now she’s trying to back-pedal.

  8. Anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers, flat earthers, it’s all here.

    A long and very good article from the US Buzzfeed site and very relevant to Australia too. Well worth reading.

    Inside the anti-science forces of the internet.
    Welcome to the corner of the internet that’s hell-bent on convincing you that GMOs are poisonous, vaccines cause autism, and climate change is a government-sponsored hoax. The message is traveling far and wide
    https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemlee/inside-the-internets-war-on-science?utm_term=.ipYpYodP4#.qkmMKJPmL

    • The Adapt 2030 Youtube channel is pushing the line that the earth is cooling down due to less sunspots. Very little if any science gets discussed and he has never mentioned the warming, melting Arctic. He does concentrate on cold weather events and calls every low temperature or snowfall a record. With Google these claims can be easily debunked but none of his 30,000 followers do it. (e.g. a recent reading of -54°F in Greenland was supposed to be a record but in the 40s Greenland was MUCH colder as a quick Google check showed me. Same for Moscow supposedly suffering record cold.

      Some of the subscribers there come out with some rubbish! H.A.A.R.P. and “chemtrails” are basically warming the earth to prevent the cooling trend from being seen. Yup, Good Grief Charlie Brown!

      Adapt 2030 (David Dubyne if anyone knows him) said in his last video that cherry growers in Tasmania were putting their cherry trees inside greenhouses. Not a ONE of the deluded followers pointed out that cherries need cold to form. I knew that and a quick Google (and, later, Landline) showed me the cherry growers were putting retractable over their cherry orchards. Cherries split if hit with rain let alone the damage hail does. I posted that and pointed out for the umphteens time that AGW is increasing evaporation and consequently precipitation and with big and lucrative contracts with the Chinese the cherry growers could afford the cost of the roofs. Not a single comment to this comment by me over there.

      I don’t waste my time looking at the stupid videos, just go by the summary.

      Have learned from it too. It appears a solar minimum might warm the planet: less UV but more infrared.

      England has had a mild winter, one guy in Scotland had grown plants in his unheated conservatory—they were only meant to overwinter there.

      Chicago had temperatures of 70°F in Jan–Feb. Absolutely unprecendented temperatures, usually below freezing.

      Neither of these observations will shake the belief of any of the Adapt 2030 followers. The cold comes after the heat etc bullshit.

      A lot of the people there seem to want to believe they know “secret” knowledge known only to a few. That seems to be the attraction as far as I can tell. Certainly Adapt 2030 only presents cherry picked cold weather and lies, no science, no global view.

      I am an Initiate. Of crap.

  9. As a post-script to my comment above, some here may have noticed I had some alternative theories – never asserted as facts in themselves, but as scenarios that fitted the facts – on the fate of MH-370.

    Does this make me a crackpot?

    Yes and no.

    At the time I had no proof that “they” were looking in the wrong place. It was a hunch from which I proposed an alternative view as a possibility, until proven otherwise. A pretty “crackpot” idea. Where’s the alfoil?

    Now, over three years down the track, one thing seems to be certain: “they” really were looking in the wrong place, or if it was the right place, “their” easy confidence in a quick recovery of the downed plane was gravely misplaced.

    So, perhaps I wasn’t so much of a crackpot after all?

    I still don’t know what actually happened to that plane, but I’m pretty confident that somebody does. I think it’s probably the Americans, because they had the most to lose from missing an un-tracked aircraft flying about “their patch” in the middle of the Indian Ocean. There are probably a few satellites up there in geostationary orbits above our oceans (including the Indian Ocean) that we don’t know much about. It’d be a fair bet that one of them was tasked with early warning duties for their completely isolated island base in Diego Garcia, otherwise defenceless except for its own fleet of fighter aircraft and missiles.

    These geostationary satellites have a very large purview, almost half a hemisphere. The commercial one that detected MH-370’s “pings” was in such an orbit. It’s doubtful to me that the US military doesn’t have one (or more) in a similar orbit, for less civilian purposes and with far greater observation abilities. The outcome of a shooting war might depend on those abilities.

    So far just a thought experiment of mine, but one that on the facts has not been refuted just yet.

  11. Having followed the Centrelink robo-debt issue very closely I think I can better write their first letter to their “customers”.

    Dear valued customer
    As you may know Centrelink has severely cut the numbers of experienced employees here and our minister has committed to extract around $4 billion from you all. Because we now have neither the staff or experience to properly look at potential anomolies that our admittedly flawed data-matching process before contacting you we are now asking you to do all the work to validate our guess that you may owe us a lot of money.
    Don’t worry about it too much we still have lots of people stand by ready to answer the phone and talk to you.
    We know you have told us on a fortnightly basis what you have earned but we only have aggregated annual amounts provided by the ATO but we now don’t have the time to look after your interests.
    As for getting the money from you we have engaged the services of professional debt collectors who will sensitively engage with you – and get you to pay a 10% surcharge for their involvement.
    We do value your understanding but we are finding it tough going at a management level here.
    Yours sincerely

  12. More harvesting of C4 summer active native grass seeds at a seed production area on our property.

    Next week we have around 50 interested parties hearing about our project which is nearing completion and visiting several sites.

    • As someone who cares for two on disability support and have myself been on and off “newstart” due to a variety of reasons over the years (I dislike contract work, but sometimes it is all one can get) this whole “welfare card” bollocks is enough to give me the frighteners.

      The question then becomes, how does one prove that one is not in need of “government help” to manage one’s finances if one is on a disability or aged pension, or unable to find work etc?

  15. We have paid for Tony to have a holiday in France. How very generous of us. And no doubt we will be paying for another trip next year when the damn thing is officially opened.

    This is the total waste of money erection to Abbott’s ego that he insisted was necessary.
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/ww1/tony-abbott-unveils-plans-for-new-sir-john-monash-centre-in-france-20150426-1mttau.html

    • A couple of years ago when we were there we got upbraided by a young Parisian lady for not using Madame, then a week later were given the treatment for doing so in Burgundy. You can’t win!

  18. A video has emerged of the son of Kim Jong-nam, the murdered half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
    In the short and censored clip, the man says: “My name is Kim Han-sol, from North Korea, part of the Kim family.”
    He says he is with his mother and sister, but there are no details on the date or location. It’s the Kim family’s first public comment since the murder.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39202424

  20. Looking through the history of WA elections, the most seats that Labor have ever won in WA is 34/50 seats in the 1911 election. If Labor pulls off what the polls are predicting, that will be a record for them.

    As a state, WA seems to rarely have landslide results. The best election the L/NP have had is 38/59 seats in 2013, 35/57 seats in 1996 and 33/55 seats in 1977. Most other elections have been pretty run-of-the-mill close to 50% for either side.

    But it’d make the victory so much sweeter if they turn a record defeat in 2013 into a record victory 1 term later. But if they do pull that off this weekend, I just hope they don’t stuff it up in the years to come.

    • It’s harder for the ALP in WA as the MSM here is represented by papers that are both dearly beloved by the Liberals. There is a great deal of anger towards the proposed sale of Western Power, and the shinanigans over Roe 8, but Ms Hanson is a very popular figure and there is a deep anger towards both major parties.
      I’m still hoping that the ALP will win, and will not be blocked too badly by the various micro-parties and so-called “independents” that have infested this election.
      I’m not sure how many ex-PHON candidates are now standing around the state, but if any are elected I expect to see/hear a certain redhead crowing *expectant distaste*

  21. Kirsdarke

    It won’t matter whether they stuff up or not, the msm will do to them what they are doing here in Victoria to Dan Andrews……………making everything bad and wrong by over hyping everything.

  22. The welfare card business –

    Ever since this idea was first talked about years ago people have been coming up with ideas to get around the restrictions it places on spending.

    The obvious one is to use your card to do grocery shopping for family members or friends who will then pay you back in cash, giving you money to spend in any way you want. If you want to use that cash to buy booze, drugs or alcohol then who’s going to stop you? You could also use the card online to shop or pay bills for others and again be reimbursed in cash. You could be reimbursed with a direct transfer into your bank account too.

    The card gets 80% of your payment, the other 20% goes into your normal bank account. It’s not much, but you can do whatever you like with that, including withdrawing it in cash. People who say being on the card means you can’t shop at markets or second hand shops are wrong, you still have some cash you can use for that. You can have more cash by doing sneaky deals. I can’t believe no-one at DHS has realised just how clever, creative and downright sneaky people can be when they need to be.

    DHS says you can use the card anywhere debit cards are accepted and that includes online. I already use a debit card for just about everything. I really don’t need much cash so having this card would, for me, not be any different to what I’m doing now. For people who go into the bank every fortnight and withdraw their entire payment in cash it would be a very drastic change.

    But – I do understand why people are so angry about this. No-one wants to be treated like a stupid child by having their income managed in this way. It’s degrading. How dare this government assume that just because you are on some sort of benefit you must be an alcoholic with a gambling and/or drug addiction? Retailers and snarky checkout workers are going to have a wonderful time sneering and making snide remarks whenever someone presents this very distinctive card. That’s the really nasty part. for me, making people ashamed to be on welfare.

    The card should be voluntary. no-one should be compelled to use it. Making it compulsory for everyone on welfare is reinforcing the incorrect public perception that everyone on a benefit is a loser.

    About all this card will achieve is growth in the cash economy as people come up with new and creative ideas to get their hands on more cash. It’s going to cost the budget a fortune, with Indue being paid thousands for each person on the card.

    https://www.dss.gov.au/families-and-children/programmes-services/welfare-conditionality/cashless-debit-card-trial-overview

    • The charity I volunteer with gives out “Woolies Cards” a sort of voucher/debit card for spending at Woolies outlets but unable to be used to buy grog or smokes. The local pub is the scene of a market where they can be swapped for cash at a 10% discount.

    • Indue card works like Coles or Woolies card. To date in Ceduna it cannot be used at Aldi, or for insurance direct or SAA. People on Newstart tend to hang round with other people on Newstart so will be asking strangers to swap groceries for cash

  25. Leone

    The card you are talking about is very degrading for anyone who has to use it. Doesn’t matter if you can manage your finances with one. It is just plain insulting for most people.

  26. With the WA election 2 days away I thought I might give a prediction of sorts.

    Likely ALP Gains
    West Swan*
    Belmont
    Forrestfield
    Collie-Preston*
    Perth
    Swan Hills
    Morley
    Balcatta
    Mount Lawley
    Joondalup

    Potential Gains
    Kalamunda
    Bicton
    Southern River
    Wanneroo
    Burns Beach
    Bunbury

    Not impossible from what I’ve been hearing
    Hillarys
    Jandakot

  29. Surface just being scratched

    Centrelink’s use of 10% debt recovery fee could be unlawful, welfare groups say

    ‘Robo debt’ recovery system charged 97,300 welfare recipients the fee in the last six months of 2016 alone

    Why is the Department of Inhuman Services acting like thugs? The Senators were far too lenient with the head witch.

  36. Just checked TV programs for tonight. Caarp.

    I wonder what Michelle Guthrie is up to, apart from outsourcing the lot (You don’t call in PWC if that is not what you want)..In five years it’ll be all Master Apprentice.

    Fortunately I have a short-wave radio, gradia uxor.

  37. Fiona quoth that ABC FM Classics, Newsradio, when streaming the Beeb, were her wont.

    For what it is worth, that is where I go to as well.

    As for RN? There is so much I have absolutely no interest in: that curate’s egg.

    • Ducky,

      RN on Saturdee morning is okay until approximately 10am – Geraldine Doogue, then Jonathan Green.

    • Fiona,

      Overevening and night I listen to ABC FM classic or BBC relay. The BBC has, recently, gone a bit grief porn for my liking.

      I still have to get to grips with the wonders of shortwave but I shall.

      BTW, someone on the TV OH is watching i the next just said “curate’s egg”.

  38. I think it was somewhat of a good blessing that somehow when the change happened from Analog to Digital occurred, my flat turned out to be completely impervious to most digital TV channels, I weaned myself off free-to-air TV.

    For instance in the coming months, now that I have completed watching the remarkable Netflix series Narcos, my viewing list for the upcoming months include Mad Men, Arrested Development, Star Wars: Clone Wars and other Netflix shows that I think are worth my time. That is on top of the time I devote to watching DVD’s such as I, Claudius and Band of Brothers.

    Guthrie’s ABC will lead to a dead end, I’m sorry to say, The only ABC shows I have any urge to watch are Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell (in the very few weeks that it airs), and replays of Insiders when they have notable interviews.

  39. Back to cooking with a tagine here, for tomorrow. Diffuser essentially if use on the stove. turn on (ceramic) plate to about thirty percent. Add the food. Cover. After about 20 minutes, turn the plate down to absolute low.

    It’s a lamb and eggplant thingy and takes about 2 hours.

  41. For those like me, who don’t watch 7.30,,here’s the latest update on the shifting of deckchairs on the soon-to-sink SS Turnbull Government.

    Malcolm Turnbull to take lead on economy from Scott Morrison; Cabinet reshuffle looming
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-09/malcolm-turnbull-to-take-lead-on-economy-from-treasurer/8341202?pfmredir=sm

    Trumble is going to make several ‘keynote’ speeches ahead of the budget. Oh Good Lord! Boring us all into a coma is all he can think of?

    • So “Malcolm says”. Has worked a treat so far.

      “Teh Budget is a work in abeyance work. Londium to some clay that that particular commandment will not last two days; never mind budget eve.

    • Well, that’s one of the dumbest ideas Turnbull’s had. He’s as incoherent on policy as anyone in his government. What’s Turnbull trying to convey here? That nobody in his party can doing anything competently except himself? Not only is it stupid, it’s divisive. And is he going to attempt to cash in on his personal popularity? It may not have filtered through to him yet, but he has no personal popularity. He sold it all many months ago to keep the leadership.

      And here’s the key line that tells you it’s all a crock:

      The strategy is aimed at quelling backbench concern that the Coalition is not making enough of its traditional advantage over Labor on economic management.

      If they’re operating on the assumption that they’re better at economic management, and that it’s just the selling of the message that’s deficient, they deserve to go down. That’s a concept that died some time during Abbott’s leadership.

      This is on a par with Abbott’s “Good government starts today” pitch. Just a pretend announcement to give the impression they’re doing something.

    • I guess there’s a shift of sorts. Until this point Turnbull was dancing to the hard right’s tune with backing from his front benchers. Now he’s doing the same dance solo. It’ll garner the same reviews.

  42. @Curioz

    Yeah, I’m a little worried about how One Nation might fare in WA. While I expect Labor will romp home to a majority on the lower house, I don’t know how things will fare in the upper house.

    I mean, the upper house in Victoria is a complete mess sometimes. Labor needs 7 members of the 10 member crossbench in Victoria to pass legislation, and 5 of those are Greens MP’s who more often than not just want to discard progressive legislation in order to just screw over Labor, thanks to the malicious leadership of Greg Barber.

    Thanks to WA holding the old and completely manipulable system of group ticket voting, I expect Glen Druery’s alliance will win the balance of power and make things unworkable over there. I hold at least a little bit of hope that maybe things can be made to work well, such as a Labor-National co-sponsored legislation into Mining Royalties, but I fear that ship has already left the dock.

    • Enlighten me about the federal and about state upper houses, if you would be so kind.

      What powers do they have.

      Forget about federal: I know.

      That extra-judiciaral thingy is a bitch!

  43. This North Korea thing is overblown to bits. China will never let things get beyond a pass.

    All the militants involve (NK, SK, UK, USA, EU) are posturing for international approbation and for internal electioneering.

    Can a minnow flap its wings? Your Government is.

  44. @TLBD

    Basically, for most kinds of legislation to be passed (apart from financial supply, which can no longer be blocked), there needs to be the support of the majority of the lower house (Legislative Assembly) and the upper house (Legislative Council) for legislation to pass into law for that state.

    So for example, if in a theoretical state in which Labor had just won a majority in the lower house but failed to secure a majority in the upper house, the Labor Premier could attempt to try to pass law for that state saying “Firstborns of families with a net income of under $50,000 do not have to be sacrificed”. That law then passes the Lower house and then is subject to review in the upper house.

    Sadly the result in the upper house with the Liberals/Nationals stating that “People on that kind of income don’t need any kind of protection, and frankly if people on that kind of income is sacrificed into Soylent Green then we’d all be better off” while the Greens would be like “We will vote against this bill until we are able to amend it so that every family is entitled to a government funded unicorn pony”, then the end result is that because Labor is outnumbered in the Legislative Council by the Liberals, Nationals and Greens, then their legislation would fail to pass into law.

  48. @TLBD

    Well, if the will of the Lower House was met with obstruction by the Upper House, then the next step would be to initiate a State Referendum.

    If that referendum passes, then the upper house (if it insisted on continual blockage) would be compelled to yield to democracy and abide by the results of the referendum.

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