Jara

That's one heck of a load of Jo Nova you've posted there. Oh well, at least it's a break from your IPA entomologist.

Oh god, not the bloody entomologist again. I wish you'd start quoting qualified climate scientists and not IPA stooges.

Magic! (I mean your reference to organics, not the mushrooms)

I don't know about the tax thing. I see tax money spent every day of the week on things I hate (e.g. Geelong and Bulldogs ovals, freeways, Tony Abbot's extravagant travel expenses ) If we spend a bit to help some tortured soul gain greater peace of mind, I won't be complaining. Not sure what you mean by "weakened" society. If you could indulge me with a brief story. Some CFA members of one of our neighbouring brigades told me of their female crew leader who performed heroically on Black Saturday. The crew believed she saved their lives during a burnover by her courage, experience and skill. She had lived most of her life as a male. How is she "weakening" society?

Biff - I've known a couple of people with gender issues - have copped a terrible time, both from society and from their own minds - they are our fellow citizens and we should give them nothing but friendship, affection and acceptance. I assume that's what The Age article was trying to do. If it helps some kid somewhere struggling with his or self-esteem, good on it.

Been stewing about it all day. It's been years, now - why can't I let go? The same questions keep bobbing to the surface, like a turd in a swimming pool. Where are the records? If you reckon Dank's got em, why haven't you sued him to find out what he injected into your players? Why did you give The Weapon a million bucks? And - oh god, if you exist - why are those cheating junkies in the finals and we're not?

And now they win the Rising Star with the player they got for being drug cheats. What a heartwarming story of battling against adversity, what heroes, what role models.

Hear hear. Dunno about Kennedy but my god I never want to trade with Collingwood again. In my worst nightmares I see Old Plankhands dropping marks, Prince gazing longingly into the mirror and Howe taking species.

Great if he comes, but my god it all seems so hopeless right now. I feel like I've been seeing this sort of crap - new dawns, boom recruits, building - all my friggin life and all it ever comes down to is disappointment.

I've been a member for nearly twenty years (supporter for fifty). For each of the past few years I've asked myself - why bother? Then I've looked at the clip of Robbie Flower - and I'm back in the saddle (or the chastity belt, or whatever it is)

Times of India, 17 August 2017: The writing in that first article is painfully small, difficult to read thoroughly. Does it say when the water shortages will come in? (Bearing in mind, of course, that in 2001 we ourselves had 8 years of terrible drought ahead of us, leading to our worst ever bushfire and the deaths of 173 of our fellow citizens)

Think that's from Hamlet, not MacBeth. Brought to mind another line from Shakespeare I've always loved: "Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit. Bye and bye it will strike." (from The Tempest - Probably not accurate - just from memory, but I've always thought it was such a clever comment upon humour, and how much speed is an essential component of it)

Except that I don't think that's in Act 2. Wrecker must have something else in mind.

"act 2, scene 2 includes my favourite line of Macbeth. You won't see me linking to the whole play to somehow try and validate a point." what's the line?

Doubtless fake news.

One thing I don't understand about your post. Your opening remarks in which you say they predicted temperatures higher than what we got. Is that true? I don't recall it. Can you show me where they said it? I know we've had relatively mild summers for the past couple of years . Also your comment about risks in excess of what actually happened sounds skewiff to me. A risk is a risk. They work them out according to strict scientific formulae. Just because there wasn't a disastrous fire doesn't mean they were wrong. That could be because of luck, or swift action by the CFA in suppressing them before they get away. I've seen instances of both in the past couple of years.

you're ignoring me, so i suppose you'll never get to read this, but what do you think? they put out warnings for fun? - they know that lives are depending upon their predictions - they follow strict procedures worked out by the best fire scientists in the world - (not hyperbole - in Victoria, we really are world leaders) I've observed, for the past few years, that the warnings they put out are mainly concerned about grass fires - it takes years of drought to build up to catastrophic conditions such as those we experienced leading up to Black Saturday - but the risk is still there - remember the Lara fires? From memory, eleven people killed by grass fires - and by ignorance - just because you don't get a catastrophe doesn't mean you weren't at risk of one, or that your local fireys didn't save you or your loved ones from becoming victims - (although on closer reading i see you live in Burwood, so maybe it's of little concern to you) I notice in your reply to Earl you called the fire authorities and scientists pessimists. Jeez... words just about fail me. In fact - they do - I gotta get back into the big red truck.

Two points. One, that's not dog-whistling. And two, I don't know where you live, but for your sake I hope it's nowhere near the bush. How dare you put quotation marks around the word 'experts'? I know some of those guys - they have an incredibly difficult job which they do using the best available scientific knowledge. They have a huge burden - some of the ones I know lost friends and colleagues on Black Saturday and are acutely aware of the importance of their advice. One fact which adds to their burden is the incredible ignorance of the general public (which you exemplify) - I've seen this so often (e.g. a couple of years ago we were racing to get to the fires at Epping and literally couldn't get there because of all the morons blocking up the roads) And you are whistling through your sphincter when you say they have predicted "record-breaking bush fires". As far as I'm aware, they haven't done this since Black Saturday, and they were right then (in fact we have had at least one record-breaking fire since then - the Lancefield fire, which broke records for being so early in the season- it was at the beginning of October, if I remember correctly) They're not using "scare tactics" - they're trying to save lives. When we get 40 degree hot windy day, fires can break out anywhere in the bush - it's only the vigilance of the CFA which suppresses most of them before they get away and stops them from killing people.

I don't know what you mean - dog whistled?

My fellow CFA vols are worried this year's going to be a bad one. At least we haven't had a long-term drought, so hopefully not too bad.

Sorry - you're right - very rude of me - you are very straightforward in your posts - my apologies (god knows, I should be the last to criticise anybody - I send my silly little missives off without even checking them half the time - probably riddled with typos ((if that's how you spell typos ))

God, you're game. Are you going to share with him your complaint about the low quality of prize winners these days?

Haha yes, I noticed that, too. Einsein, Eisenstein, what's the diff? They're all in on the conspiracy. Haven't seen it for thirty years, but Alexander Nevsky is one of my favourite films. Do you remember that opening scene, when he's fishing and he tells all the Huns or whatever they were to shut up?

Oh and here's the professor's email: M.Englandunsw.edu.au I challenge you to send him your refutation of his article. Very easy to confuse me. Possibly not so easy to confuse him. If you can't do it - well, I'll put you in the same category as my uncle - (better not give his name - he's a Dees supporter - may wander by, though I doubt it - he's a bit past it these days) - was a handy feller, some sort of boilermaker by trade. Tried to tell us he'd figured out where Einstein got it wrong. He knew enough to confuse me, but (not having maths) probably not enough to confuse Einstein.

You confuse me (not hard to do when it comes to science, I must admit) - but let me get this experiment straight. (Let's just talk about the bath for now, not the ocean) You said to basically get a heat source and transmit it into the bath - you're saying it isn't detectable at the bottom of the bath, right? I'm asking - why not? Maybe hydroponic lights aren't strong enough, as you suggest, but surely a stronger light would be (say the lights of the MCG)?