nigel99

I need to reread it along with Animal Farm

https://youtu.be/G4zrA8Knnk8?si=quXgu8EvBbdfHHcg Brian talks about how Musk is talking rubbish as nobody can access GPS data at scale. Not only is Brian wrong, I remember a university showed that they could identify the home address of a senior pentagon official by correlating public device location data. They took the data and pattern matched finding that one device from a home went to the pentagon and the other to a university where the wife worked. I can’t find that article but there are a number of others. https://www.wired.com/story/phone-data-us-soldiers-spies-nuclear-germany/ The biggest concern is that it is likely that everyone who is going to these rallies are being monitored and on a “watch list”. It’s scary to think that based on freely available information that doesn’t require warrants and other legal due process, you could be identified. The possibilities of abuse are sobering. A couple that come to mind. Being individually targeted for IRS or other increased scrutiny, being doxxed, if in a high density of “protestors” possibly having your neighbourhood funding and services targeted, targeted political ads. Maybe the price of Facebook and our smart phones is higher than we realised.

I believe it was the 2011 boogie and you flew in? I have a vague memory of popsjumper introducing you. I’ve only been to 2 of the boogies.

Are you calling me young and vibrant? I’m liking SC more every day! First Joe tells me “I need more time in the pickle barrel “ because I’m young and dumb , now this :)

I’ll definitely be back to visit, there are still many places I want to see and people to catch up with. Probably not while my Reddit, FB and posts here don’t risk me spending time in El Salvador :) But I’ll counter your offer, come spend a couple of months in South West Australia or on the central coast of NSW.

Being an Aussie it’s hard not to approach this feeling like a hypocrite. Throwing stones and living in glass houses etc. We have an appalling track record and I detest the treatment of illegal immigrants here. If you spend 30 minutes researching Australian treatment of asylum seekers you’ll find numerous human rights violations, suicide rates through the roof and indeterminate detentions. You’re probably not surprised to find that the colour of your skin, country of origin also plays a major part in how you’re treated.

That attitude is a perfect example of the asinine arrogance that makes American’s detested the world over. Believe me a very large portion of the world has ZERO interest in being American. We are not and have never been sold on the American dream or the message that you’re the leaders of freedom and democracy. This goes back long before the Trump fiasco. Many other countries have better social services, lower crime rates, less religious influence, free and unrestricted access to porn (I believe if Americans had more boobs and less guns they would be happier), better healthcare and other factors that we are perfectly happy with. We don’t all see the hallowed ground of unfettered access to firearms as the holy grail of a perfect society. I love visiting the US, especially the southern states. There are many great people and in general some of the friendliest people I have met. I’ve been to 21 states and would rank my favourites in order as South Carolina, Texas, Georgia and New Mexico. Hardly liberal lefty states. Least favourite was New York followed by California. Over the past 25 years I’ve probably spent an accumulated total of around 4 years there, with most of that working alongside Americans. As a kid growing up fantasising about being a test pilot on fighter jets, one of my most treasured memories is working at the Lockheed facility in Fort Worth and having lunches in the canteen with test pilots for the JSF and F16. But there is nowhere in the US that would entice me to want to settle there permanently.

I’ve had 2 experiences with Aus. 1. I held permanent residency but didn’t realise that if you left the country after 5 years you had to renew it. There is no requirement to renew it if you’re not travelling overseas. At the time I was backwards and forwards to the US. It so happened that the 5 year mark ticked over during the flight back from San Fransisco to Aus. When I got to border control in Aus I was told I didn’t have a valid entry visa. They took me aside and spoke to me, gave me a laptop and told me to renew my visa online. $200 of visa fees and a couple of hours delay I was back on my way. 2. I got Aus citizenship and didn’t bother getting an Aussie passport as Dual citizenship is allowed. Left the country on my Uk passport and then couldn’t get back on the flight home as I didn’t know that despite the immigration system showing I was an Australian citizen I couldn’t enter the country on a UK passport. Aus passports are expensive and I’ve got years left on my Uk one. Spent the night in Hong Kong, went to the embassy and got an emergency passport. All sorted the airline even honoured my ticket. Arguably in both cases I should have known better and clearly my fault. Should I have been detained and sent to Christmas Island (our atrocity that is equivalent to Gitmo, because Aus is constantly in trouble for Human rights violations with immigrants and are far from perfect?). Generally speaking and historically with Western countries, if you get to the border to enter (not exit) without a valid visa you’re turned away. Usually the airline is forced to bear the cost of returning you to point of origin. The US that is no longer the case. You risk being detained for extended periods of time without proper legal representation. Never mind the human aspect that’s costing the US taxpayers money. In the past with the US even if you went to leave the country you were allowed to leave and then blacklisted from future entry, again cost effective and reasonable even if it was an innocent mistake.

That’s hilarious. Pair of shoes :)

From outside the US the stories and messaging are not that rules are being enforced but the nature of it. Typically in Western countries if you accidentally break the law, you’ll get turned back at the border, denied boarding or even allowed to fix the mistake. I’ve had a visa expire on me while I was away, they just put me in a room and told me to do the renewal prior to entry (Aus, who are incredibly harsh). It’s not normal to be detained for weeks for simple stuff and that is the warning.

Just got told by someone involved in private security operations that Tucker is planning a visit to Aus/WA and they are out recruiting people to provide security. If true I really hope his visa is refused. Unfortunately our mini Trumps are looking slightly ahead in Federal elections.

I plan on continuing to go to the Fitz boogie when I can. I love the southern states, and Greenville SC is one of my favourite spots in the US. I’m a tad nervous about travelling to the US in the near future though. But you’re all welcome to visit Aus in the interim!

Quite a few travel warnings have now been issued against travelling to the US. I’ve started getting American Airlines ads for flights between Aus and the US that are lower than the cost of interstate flights here.

Glad you can make sense of his posts, because no joke I can’t. Every post makes me think he’s mastered the art of the weave but with big words.

What surprises me is the living presidents and vice presidents. get them all in a room and on message.

I’m half way across the world and luckily in one of the most remote cities (Perth). I’ve never been a one of the prepar type people, but my kids and I are in the process of buying a couple of hundred acres down south. Sadly I can see the time coming where you need to be able to be largely self sufficient and am lucky enough to have the resources and location to do it. On the plus side if the world returns to sanity we will have a lovely property for hunting and having fun.

I hope I am. It’s not something I enjoy seeing happening.

Unfortunately I think it’s too late for the US and you won’t recover from this. Both sides of the isle and the judiciary dropped the ball many years ago. Other than Bernie and AOC (possibly Waltz), there are no visible leaders actively promoting a viable alternative and drawing attention to the state of things and offering to fight. So the constitution is a meaningless pierce of paper now. I hope I’m proven wrong

One thing Trump has done has to unite the world against him (and sadly the US is largely lumped in with him) and raise nationalism in other countries. I don’t particularly like our attitude towards social media here, but as soon as I’ve got Musk and Co pushing their agenda it’s a firm hell no!

https://x.com/JayinKyiv/status/1902741232394043416 I think we need a trump bingo for the next dictator move trump makes. I’m guessing declaring April 2nd as a national holiday.

https://youtu.be/7nD2Z-iOfeg?si=FzCzg9WSO-7Uz18K US tech companies wanting to interfere in Aus.

Was very interesting speaking to the Astro physicists. The theory is that you can look back in time, because as the universe expands the light waves “stretch” shifting the frequencies lower. Probably a simplified explanation that was given to me :)

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-18/ska-low-first-image-of-universe-beyond-scientists-expectations/105058286 This is pretty cool. I designed the LNA (low noise amplifier) for the receiver unit. Interestingly my boss at the time designed and patented the ultra low frequency phase noise oscillator that’s used in SKA and the over the horizon radar that Canada just bought.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-19/canada-snuck-past-trump-buy-jorn-defence-radar/105069292 A bit of a win for Australian and Canadian relations

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHGe8MeRRud/?igsh=MTYxNG9kbTd3bmZ6ag== Saw this ad and loved it