@DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

DavidPenington

@DavidPenington@mastodon.au

Sailor, father, database developer. I ride bicycles for transport.
Studied mathematics, physics & some meterology.
Wurundjeri country, Melbourne Australia
I talk quite a lot about Australian politics, Ukraine war, renewables/global warming. Some IT & military history.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

GottaLaff, to Canada
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

After a long morning of loading the POD, stuffing the car, cleaning, scrubbing, double-checking, all on very little sleep… we’re off! here we come.

loves these long road trips.

First night: Sacramento-ish.

DavidPenington,
@DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

@GottaLaff Woo hoo! You made it to departure!
A mammoth effort.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

“Speaker Mike Johnson told GOP lawmakers that he’ll try to pass four bills this week to send aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan — each in separate bills, according to two Republicans in the private Monday meeting.

A fourth proposed bill would include a package of related measures, including a lend-lease deal for military aid, a ban on TikTok in the U.S. and provisions to sell off assets seized from Russian oligarchs.”

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/04/15/congress/johnsons-ukraine-israel-proposal-00152375

DavidPenington,
@DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

@GottaLaff So

  1. Johnson will not let the bill for aid to Israel, Ukraine & Taiwan that has already passed the senate be voted on, instead his own new versions.
  2. Watch for the Ukraine bill to suddenly be delayed.
  3. Will these bills be acceptable to the senate? They will have rushed the drafting.
    Note: Johnson has no problem getting congress to approve the Senate's aid bill. His congress problem is avoiding the crazy wing of the Republicans deposing him.
DavidPenington, to random
@DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

Egypt rejected the idea of safe corridors for civilians to protect “the right of Palestinians to hold on to their cause and their land” 😣
Protecting their right to be forced to die for the cause?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/oct/11/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-death-toll-us-egypt-passage-gaza?page=with:block-6526e9278f08868e610b8f24#block-6526e9278f08868e610b8f24

Alice, to random
@Alice@beige.party avatar

I’m always surprised when I go into an old house and find a dumb waiter that's still working because I would have stopped working a long time ago if everyone called me that.

DavidPenington,
@DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

@Alice @Gogs
My favourite bastard vending machine: Ravenous after a morning of touring on bicycles, we roll into a tiny French village & find a fresh bread vending machine! How French! No other source of food. Bastard machine wouldn't accept my Australian credit card, leaving me salivating & hungry.

raymondpert, to MIjazz
@raymondpert@mstdn.social avatar

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    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @raymondpert "ignition" means laser energy in = heat energy produced. Electrical energy in was 5 times that.
    Heat conversion to electricity is rarely better than 30% so to produce useful electricity from this approach needs:

    • working out how to usefully capture the energy produced in the fusion & cope with the vast numbers of high energy neutrons which cause materials problems
    • improving efficiency more than 15 fold, to break even.
      So this "breakthrough" is arbitrary milestone a very long way from delivering any usable energy.
    raymondpert, to uk
    @raymondpert@mastodon.cloud avatar

    The #UK government said Wednesday it will back legislation banning foreign state ownership of British #newspapers and magazines, a move that could upend a planned takeover by a United Arab Emirates-led consortium of the #TelegraphMediaGroup.

    > The development comes after numerous lawmakers from across the political divide urged an explicit ban, rather than using a regulatory approach to ensure that publications don’t parrot views of state actors.
    https://apnews.com/article/telegraph-spectator-foreign-state-ownership-ban-859bfcb3afd849e3cf388cf1fab32f41 #journalism #UAE

    DavidPenington,
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    @raymondpert The UK has to carefully ban only foreign staye owned organisations from buying UK newspapers, because they dare not ban the American Murdoch group despite its harmful effects.

    DavidPenington, to random
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    Ukraine should negotiate with Russia. Negotiate on reparations, Russian disarmament, guarantees, & the ex-Soviet position on the security council. I suggest full nuclear disarmament, 10% of GDP for 15 years in reparations & Rostov, Belgorod & Bryansk oblasts demilitarised by Russia & secured by Ukraine as guarantees.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-21/zelenskyy-lavrov-at-un-general-assembly-stop-war-veto-power/102882162

    DavidPenington, to random
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    Good riddance, eventually, to RMIT's Traditional Chinese Medicine undergraduate program.
    TCM was standardised after 1948 as the only medicine China could afford for the bulk of the population.
    Chinese TCM researchers are required to produce positive results or be in trouble with their bosses. TCM materials are a big Chinese export & a Chinese doctor has been prosecuted for criticising it. They lack a consistent or reality based diagnostic system.
    The Australian TCM acupuncture research I have seen was terrible - showing bias, not evidence.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-21/rmits-face-criticism-over-discontinuing-chinese-medicine-program/102836548

    DavidPenington, to random
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    Context is dead.

    https://youtu.be/ojJtGGPn47s?si=A-brrru6qJU-Hq2o

    DavidPenington, to random
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    Iceland PM joins crowd of 100,000 for full-day women’s strike

    Katrín Jakobsdóttir says she wants nation to achieve full gender equality by 2030 as over a quarter of population attend event in capital!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/24/iceland-prime-minister-joins-womens-strike-katrin-jakobsdottir

    alexkidman, to headphones

    New review time (text and video) as I pop the very affordable Edifier NeoBuds Pro 2 ANC buds into my ears. They promise quality ANC for much, much less... but do they deliver?


    https://alexreviewstech.com/edifier-neobuds-pro-2-review-good-noise-cancelling-sub-par-battery-life/

    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @alexkidman And why does your photo look like a Japanese high-tech porta potty?

    DavidPenington, to random
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    This has a very impressive video of the Hamas tunnels under al Shifa hospital. The tunnels got power and water from the hospital, including its solar system & generators. That is a clear abuse of the requirement to not be used to harm "the enemy". Al Shifa had zero right to protection under the Geneva Conventions.
    https://idfspokesperson.substack.com/p/this-is-the-last-stop-for-the-gaza

    DavidPenington, to random
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    On Thursday there was a de-escalation agreement in Gaza, with workers allowed to cross into Israel again on Friday, in part because Palestinian families need the income to survive. On Saturday morning, the Iran aligned Palestinian groups attacked.

    hanse_mina, to Ukraine
    @hanse_mina@nafo.uk avatar

    The wants to sharpen its plan for fighting ’s invasion as the war heads into its third year and is expected to raise the issue with President Volodymyr in next week.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-10/us-set-to-push-zelenskiy-at-davos-for-clearer-war-plan

    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @VikingChieftain @hanse_mina
    Plan:
    -Destroy Kerch brIdge & transports to Crimea with ATACAMS

    • destroy Russian strategic bombers with Tomahawk
    • destroy Russian drone, missile & ammunition production with Tomahawk
      Destroy Russian railways near Ukraine with ATACAMS
    • Fit Trophy APS or equivalent to numerous tanks
      -Attack weakened, undersupplied Russian forces in Kherson Oblast.
    GottaLaff, to random
    @GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

    I'll live post what I can of the rest of the day's , but I'm utterly exhausted.

    We've packed up most of the house (moving May 26), which did me in, even though we've gone so slowly. But all the lifting, sorting, etc, takes it out of me regardless.

    We're still packing more today, plus a showing, so I'll be in and out.

    Thanks for understanding.

    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @GottaLaff The timing of your move seems good, both settling in over the summer and leaving the US before campaigning gets too extreme.
    Nicely judged.
    Thank you for being a superb information source here.

    VikingChieftain, to random
    @VikingChieftain@krigskunst.social avatar

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    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @VikingChieftain I was surprisedthe truck drove so far & lasted so long while burning. I guess rear transmission components are pretty robust against fire.

    Korny, to random
    @Korny@hachyderm.io avatar

    A few weeks ago I installed the Glendale aurora alerts app, and naturally it's now going a bit berserk.

    Trouble is, I have no idea of any of the scales so it's hard to tell if these alerts are "pretty lights in the sky" or "day of the Triffids prelude" or "imminent apocalypse"...

    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @Korny Saw the Aurora Borealis from a coastal part in Werribee last night. Faint cloud like light low in the sky plys occasional patches of red higher up. So with some city light & through spectacles, very faint. Streaks mostly visible in peripheral vision.
    Will head fully to the Bass Strait coast tonight if it looks promising.
    Nice photos from Brunswick accumulate light to show colour that was not visible to the eye.

    fulelo, to worldwithoutus
    @fulelo@journa.host avatar

    - : Tracking the world's biggest in
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-f4de435a-d215-4a7c-86e9-9b838701c993

    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @fulelo Is this a Brexit effect? The standard unit of large Antarctic iceberg area is Luxembourg, not Greater London, which is ill defined and changes over time.
    From 2017-2020 Iceberg A-68 was 2.2 Luxembourgs area. A23a is 1.1 Luxembourgs, so it's currently the biggest but only half the size A-68 was.

    raymondpert, to Israel
    @raymondpert@mstdn.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @raymondpert Correction/clarification: UNRWA says Israeli Forces Fired on Aid Convoy. UNRWA are known to make extreme & biased statements. In Gaza they are intermingled with Hamas & dare not publicly disagree with Hamas.

    raymondpert, to Israel
    @raymondpert@mstdn.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @raymondpert The 100+ hostages have been held for 5 months, with no Red Cross visit (agreed to by Hamas in November but they reneged), terrible conditions. The reported terms are 40 hostages, one per day over 6 more weeks & negotiate about later possible release of male soldier hostages. It's a terrible deal for the remaining 60 hostages & resolves nothing, but may be the best deal Israel can get.

    GottaLaff, to random
    @GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

    “The U.S. and a host of other nations are creating a new force to protect ships transiting the Red Sea that have come under attack by drones and ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced early Tuesday in Bahrain.”

    https://apnews.com/article/attacks-red-sea-navy-mission-missiles-286d51bfd65e741e839e185f0f4a455b?taid=6580bb99010d8800015dc157

    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @GottaLaff So far the missiles & drones from the Houthi are being treated in the way Somali pirates were/are handled, but pirates were a local problem & this is an organised government level attack.

    raymondpert, to Ukraine
    @raymondpert@mstdn.social avatar

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    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @raymondpert "We are not at war with Russia," but Russia says, for internal consumption, that it is at war with all of NATO and all "The West".
    Russia is, in fact, at war with us. The 2022 energy crisis, engineered by Russia, is an example. We need to respond strongly.

    simon_brooke, to random
    @simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

    OK, suppose we reformed the relationship between central and local government in the UK by switching the proceeds of one major tax from central government to local government, which should it be? Switching income tax (£250bn) would obviously benefit richer areas at the expense of poorer. My hunch is that switching VAT (£162bn) would be a better idea.

    Comments?
    @RichardJMurphy
    @thecommongreen

    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @simon_brooke @RichardJMurphy @thecommongreen
    Per capita is basically the only formula that doesn't get messedup by politicians or entrench poverty.

    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @simon_brooke @RichardJMurphy @thecommongreen
    Switch that revenue by allocating it per capita, not trying to attribute it to its origins.

    raymondpert, to Israel
    @raymondpert@mstdn.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    DavidPenington,
    @DavidPenington@mastodon.au avatar

    @raymondpert I don't think Iran's PressTV outlet should be trusted or promoted.

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