I don't have a picture of a mallard, but I found this image of one of our most beautiful ducks.

Quote from: caskur on May 14, 2024, 05:15:31 PMThat is the female I discovered today. They have white feathers around the eye and on their sides.

They are very pretty but those ones look distressed to me from our drought.

We have some colourful ducks here, but some Australian ducks have such beautiful markings like the ones you posted.

Quote from: Erica Mena on Today at 12:32:53 PMAdmin posting gay porn. What a shocker

Is that Admin Erica?

Quote from: caskur on May 14, 2024, 10:17:10 AMThis breed is an Australian Shelduck.... Quite pretty ducks.

We haven't had rain for 8 months im Perth and our lakes have dried up. It's quite dire here... I start having a severe panic attack worried for our wildlife...

They are both pretty, especially the one on the left.

Quote from: caskur on May 14, 2024, 10:10:31 AMThese birds, Purple Swamphens are not Australian although they thrive in our environment but this one with the mended gummy broken leg was too close in good light to ignore. Not a fashionable bird but a thread filler bird.

What do you think?

It's a unique looking bird.

I should've preperared something for the barbeque.....we'll be having chicken soup tonight instead.

Quote from: DKG on May 10, 2024, 11:37:50 AMMost technology that would be knocked offline by an EMP is supplied by China
The effects of an electromagnetic pulse are far worse than most Americans can imagine, a leading space policy expert has warned.

With foreign adversaries like Russia and China officially classifying the EMPs outside of the purview of nuclear arms treaties, the infrastructure-shattering weapons could be used against Western nations with little to no direct casualties.

Space policy expert and former Trump administration advisor Greg Autry told Blaze News that EMP technology and its effects have been known for over 50 years.

"EMP is an electronic, magnetic pulse weapon and it's usually initiated with a large nuclear blast, typically at high altitude outside the atmosphere in space," Autry explained. "You basically detonate a nuclear bomb, it ionizes or charges atoms in the atmosphere and it creates a large electrical field on the ground that can basically destroy all the electronics in a city or a wider area."

"We know this works because the Russians and the United States both actually detonated a lot of nuclear weapons in space in the early 1960s, particularly during the Cuban Missile Crisis to kind of show each other we could."

The disturbing history of the EMPs included testing the nuclear arms off the southwest coast of Hawaii. This caused measurable effects in Honolulu such as auroras in the sky and the disabling of portions of the electric grid and radio systems in the city.

The real worry for a modern society is our vast reliance on electronics, Autry warned.

"If somebody did one of these today, your phone would be a brick. Anybody with a pacemaker would drop dead, instantly. Every piece of your electronics... your laptop computer, your internet router, would be gone, and most of the relays in our power grid would be gone so there would be no power."

What makes the threat even more dire is the likely inability to replace some of the serviceable parts that would be destroyed during such an attack.

"Guess what?" Autry asked rhetorically. "The people most likely to have sent that EMP to us are the Chinese, and they're not sending you any more iPhones or letting anybody ship them. Guess what? They make all of our electrical transformers, or if they don't, they make the steel that's required to make the electrical transformers. There's only one U.S. company left that can make that steel," Autry continued.

Electrical vehicles could be turned into "fireballs" the space expert noted, while "every internal combustion car on the road is going to be dead because they're all run by computers and electronic ignition system."

"We are instantly transported into the Stone Age," Autry described before laughing that in his book "Red Moon Rising," he joked that "Gen Z is gonna learn how to make a fire and sharpen spears" without the help of a YouTuber.

"It's going to be a really bad day."

Classification workaround and preparation
"The thing that scares me more," Autry piled on, was the way America's enemies have avoided classifying EMPs in the same category as nukes.

"Both Russia and China have classified these weapons not as strategic nuclear weapons but as cyber weapons, and they've made it clear that they consider the use of them not to impinge upon any obligations they may have made, or any treaties involving nuclear weapons. They can just use these things as cyber tools."

Autry revealed that he sees previous cyber attacks from the aforementioned nations as possible acts of war, but he prefers to focus on solutions rather than pontificate about past occurrences.

The policy expert said that the "Space Force is not unaware" of the possibilities of an attack and that the government agency's job is to "develop defensive systems against such an attack" that would defend assets on the ground.

"We could do a lot better at the state level, and the federal law could help mandate that our critical infrastructure be protected from EMPs. It's not actually super hard to do. You need to put these things inside what we call a faraday cage, which is a metal box or or even a mesh box."

Faraday boxes exist commercially, and while somewhat pricy for larger units, companies like Defender Shield and SLNT have popped up to sell products for a few hundred dollars. Phone sleeves, laptop carriers, backpacks, and duffle bags that block magnetic waves and RFID signals are suggested for the average consumer.

Another concern of Autry's was the United States being dragged into a conflict by another nation using an EMP. Providing examples like Russia against Ukraine or China against Taiwan, Autry said the countries could act as if it wasn't a real attack on the population because there would be limited casualties.

One thing he was certain of is that both the state and the individual could stand to be a lot more prepared.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/greg-autry-emp-threat-24?utm_source=theblaze-breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Blaze%20PM%20Trending%202024-05-09&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%207%20Day%20Engagement&tpcc=email

My knowledge of EMP is limited. I do know China is the global leader in this type of warfare. I have read from multiple sources is this how they would force Taiwan to surrender.

This is a bigger concern for the Taiwanese military than a conventional war.

Quote from: DKG on May 11, 2024, 10:16:05 AMI gave her a chance like I do everybody.

A long time ago when this forum had a lot more Asian members, progressive hypocrite Blurt created a blatantly racist handle to mock us. Particularly, the more fiscally conservative Asian posters. That man showed us how clever he is.

I spoke privately to Blurt about that character..

I asked him if he would create a blatantly racist handle to make fun of African-Americans and if he did do you think their general reaction would be positive......he replied no.....that's how we felt about the handle he created.

I'm making broccoli fettucine Alfredo for supper tonight.

Quote from: Sloan on May 08, 2024, 12:14:03 PMSeamewler seems to be obsessed with the hope that everyone he doesn't like is doing bad financially. Trump is broke, Biggie lives behind is mom's trailer, some new guy doesn't have a pot to piss in and The Countess is flat broke. That picture of Biggie's kitchen really seems to have broken him as a person.

I don't whether to chuckle or feel sorry for Seamajor.

I'm making a tofu stir fry tonight with bean sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, and enoki mushrooms for meatless Monday.

Quote from: Rotwang on May 03, 2024, 10:30:11 PMThis is an Australian striated pardalote. Striated means striped. It is very small, around the size of a wren. They are not easily photographed because of their size and the fact that they stay in shadow most of the time because they are rather easy prey for our raptor population.

It's very pretty Rotwang.

I should have mentioned we know for sure China interfered in Canada's 2019 and 2021 elections.......China is so hypocritical.

Quote from: DKG on May 04, 2024, 09:51:17 AMAnd obviously you trust the translation, no questions asked.

This is ironic since I did a little checking on SL's claim and it is true that China holds a lot of the cards in Israel's economy just like they do with most of sub Saharan Africa.

It does translate Seoul.....but, this is typical of China to scapegoat a single group in America and then later erase the provocative comment..

For decades they have made similar misleading coomments about the "powerful" Taiwanese lobby that controls Ameerican foreign policy.

Quote from: DKG on May 01, 2024, 07:41:44 AMStudents sitting for the STAAR exam throughout the state of Texas will have their written answers automatically graded by artificial intelligence. The development comes as some fear AI could significantly affect education in the near future.

The exam — provided by the Texas Education Agency — will use an "automated scoring engine" to help grade open-ended questions on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness for writing, reading, science, and social studies. The move is a step beyond using machines to simply grade multiple-choices answers or Scantron sheets.

Work will be so much different in the future..

It's so important children get the right education and skills for the coming AI revolution.