American toilet design?

[Commander Kinsey]

And somehow this can go all the way along the mains pipe to another outlet? I don't think so, it's always under pressure.

[Rod Speed]

Everyone has told you that you are very weird.

I was notorious as a little kid for loving blue vein cheese and beer and stiff like that. Not spinach tho as my mum discovered when she tried to make me eat it. She never tried that again.

Just a fact that does now make a difference to what I do.

Nope. We did come back from Singapore to Oz by commercial ship via Indonesia in the 50s and that was interesting. Never seen the point of cruises. I might well visit Oshkosh sometime.

It would be amusing to buy one of each of the cars to see which does a fancy advanced cruise control best in real life over a few years and see how well a Tesla works in the real world. Maybe visit Oshkosh in the sort of thing Trump swans around in instead of commercial aircraft etc.

[rbowman]

Lakes are nice. I grew up with lakes but they tend to be scarcer in a semi-arid climate. Unfortunately I know how to fish lakes but never got into that whole trout and running water thing.

I have a dual sport bike so I'm not entirely against motor sports but I use it to get to hiking trailheads and start walking. Even when someone rides a single track on a bike there isn't a lot of damage unless they're being an idiot. 4x4s on the other hand, tend to tear things up. My prejudice is showing but since it requires a lower skill level the riders run towards idiocy. It doesn't help that you can carry a lot more beer on a 4x4.

[rbowman]

I'm not sure of the nuances of 'bushfire' but I've gathered some of them are grassland/scrub fires. The fuel grows back. It's the California model. Their chaparral is scrubland with relatively fast growing species.

In this area a forest can take up to 100 years to regenerate. I often hike in an area that burned in 2003. There are some seedlings but it will be a long time before there's anything to burn. The duff burned down to mineral soil. Even the root systems of the trees burned out. A month after the fires you'd go by smoking craters where the roots were still slowly burning underground. A fire like that even takes out the shrubs and grasses.

[Ralph Mowery]

Too much tanning and you get skin cancer and other problems. Leather look when old.

The pasty and ill look is really the healthy kind.

Many years ago that was the look of the Southern women. Should be comming back now people are more health wise.

[Commander Kinsey]

If you had bothered reading the next line before interrupting, you would see I was talking about the chances of having it, not how bad it is when you do have it.

Or it's something else healthier in their diet, or a billion other possible variables.

[Commander Kinsey]

If 90% of the world is weird, they would call the sensible 10% weird.

Those are not disgusting.

Projectile vomiting?

Tautological - as you can't vomit without projecting.

Why did you earn more than you need? You could have retired earlier.

I wouldn't take a cruise myself, they sound boring, but I'd travel a lot. Without getting someone else to organise it. I think it's more fun if you just aimlessly wander about and explore. When I toured France I just looked at the map each morning and picked something I wanted to do that was nearby, and worked my way round the country over a few weeks.

So you can spend your vast accumulated wealth before you die afterall.

[Commander Kinsey]

Only way I can catch a fish is by spear. I never got the hand of a rod and line.

I thought bikes would be wheelspinning more.

[Commander Kinsey]

Don't be so gullible. Actually the vitamin D you create with sunlight PREVENTS cancer. Many studies have shown those who get a decent amount of sun have a much lower chance of getting any type of cancer.

I have a friend who's 60, he's tanned a LOT his whole life, and his skin is as smooth as a baby's buttocks.

Or gullible morons. I suppose you believe in global warming too? How about god?

[Rod Speed]

That's not what weird means, stupid.

Wrong, as always.

They are for plenty. Oysters too.

Nope, just as stubborn as she was.

Wrong, as always.

That's not what projectile vomiting means.

I was in the fortunate situation where my employer was silly enough to pay me very well indeed for doing what I would have been quite happy to do for free.

And made a lot of money in our mining boom on the stock market and on the market quite apart from that. I started when I was a teenager.

And I made a lot of money building a f****ng great house from scratch on a bare block of land too. Much more than the boss of the place was making at that time, all tax free.

No point when I was doing what I would still do even when retired because I prefer to do that stuff.

Unlike you, I don't have to do shit work like stuffing catalogs in letter boxes.

I prefer to live for years in each place instead. That's what we did in Singapore and in all of the major places in Oz too. All of the country capital, most of the state capitals and a number of country towns too.

Yeah, f*ck that.

Dunno about aimlessly, but yep.

Yeah that's what I usually do but avoid tourist traps.

[Commander Kinsey]

Grass may grow back quickly, but you can put it out easily. I'm assuming it's the trees causing the firefighters a problem. Rod?

[Tim Streater]

Eucalyptus is a very nasty tree to have a fire in. The wood is somewhat oily and tends to explode when it burns (the wood is hard and brittle) thus showering burning embers all around. The fire front moves very quickly. I met some folks who had been burned out in the Oakland fire of late 1989 (3000 houses burned); they said they had about ten minutes to get out.

I read that the Aussie situation has been made worse by the greenies insisting that scrub surrounding towns and houses not be removed.

[Commander Kinsey]

Indeed. What confuses me is, don't they have these fires quite often? How come there are so many trees left to burn again?

[Ray]

a fire in. The wood is somewhat oily

And the branches and leaves even more so.

That doesn’t happen.

Because once the fire crowns, in very strong wind and high temperature situation it goes at a hell of a rate and the massive updraft due the fire itself lifts the burning stuff up with it and sets fire to what isnt yet on fire well ahead of the main fire. It literally roar like a freight train the fire is so fierce.

Not even that with a wind change.

That’s a myth. Ours was burnt off last year.

[rbowman]

Trout fisherman with all their fancy flies and crap get incensed when I mention the only trout I ever caught I shot with a .22. I'd been squirrel hunting with no luck and walking back to the car I crossed a bridge over a little creek. There was the trout hanging out, perfect vertical shot with no parallax to worry about.

Not that much except on very steep hills. If you lose traction and start bouncing off rocks you're screwed. You also tend to be a little more conservative on a bike. If you gas your way up some gnarly crap you know you have to come down. A novice on a 4x4 can go places only a really good biker would try.

It's a lot like bikes and cars. A bike has a lot better acceleration than anything but the muscle cars but when it comes to corners I'll take a car any day. A little gravel you don't even notice in a car can ruin your day on a bike.

[rbowman]

It's like California, I think, mostly grass and scrub that grows back fast. Some of the eucalypts are more bushes than trees and are fast growing. They also shed tinder and burn like hell.

[Ray]

No its not Massive great trees hundreds of feet high in fact.

Yep.

Yes but most are in fact massive great trees.

Yes.

Specially once the fire crowns. Nothing will stop that, even the biggest fire bombers.

[rbowman]

Thanks. That gives me a little better feel for the terrain. There certainly is a lot of undergrowth to make sure the fire crowns out.

WWII Bunker Museum? I took a little drive down the road so to speak.

[Ray]

The Japs never made it quite so far south. They did make it to Sydney Harbour and managed to get a couple of subs inside the anti sub net etc.

In a previous era we have full naval gun installations at Queenscliff in Port Philip south of Melbourne and it was interesting to roam around those as a grade school kid. That was to be able to f*ck over the Russians when they showed up, but they never did.

[rbowman]

We have those on both coasts, most of which have become parks. Some go back to the 18th century and never protected the coast from anything but seagulls.

Most didn't try for stealth.

A lot of the wooden siding is gone so the reinforced cement construction is obvious but in its day it would have looked like a farm.