Any want to call me names and degrade me?

What kind of political party would bother imposing an ineffective tax?

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

----------------

** Wow - Phil H finally says something that is true.

Wonders will never cease...

.... Phil

----------

** The gents that do that job live in rural ( therefor fire prone) areas and are mostly much younger and rather fitter than myself.

They all refuse to accept any payment, the motivation behind which is an interesting topic for another forum.

..... Phil

------------------ >

** Yep - I believe it takes quite a while for an idea to get from a dinosaurs arse right up to to it's tiny brain.

..... Phil

------------------

** Along with shark and crocodile attacks, they send the rabid Aussie media into a full on frenzy.

Steve Irwin's run in with a sting ray fair blew the roof off every media outlet on the planet.

Deaths by car accident, misadventure and even murder hardly rate a mention unless you happen to be a celeb.

IIRC, bush fires kill an average of 4 persons per year here.

.... Phil

Not all of them. Tony Abbott - an ex-prime minster and now an ex-MP - has been seen fighting fires, at least by press photographers.

Quite a few people who do accept payment are also involved. A couple of American aviators got killed when their water-bomber crashed, and they were not working for their local community for nothing.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

There aren't any dinosaurs around any more. The ones Phil was probably thinking about had a bigger mass of nerves in their pelvis than in their heads.

It can be argued that birds are dinosaurs, but they are remarkably quick thinking, if nearly as superficial as Phil.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

.

ia into a full on frenzy.

outlet on the planet.

n unless you happen to be a celeb.

Four kids got killed at once by a drunken driver a couple of days ago, and that was worth quite a few column inches.

This hasn't been an average year. This bush-fire season has seen 34 deaths so far. It's pelting with rain here at the moment, but there still some for ty fires burning further away from the coast, and there are another couple of months to go before the bush-fire season would normally be expected to e nd.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

Welcome back, Phil. The group just wasn't the same without our mascot. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

http://electrooptical.net 
http://hobbs-eo.com

Some kind of Australian courtship ritual? "Paid" in antipodal women dropping their bloomers?

--------------

** Now, now, I did not actually say that .....

..... Phil

I was on a date with a young woman one time when I told her I liked to solder. Her eyes lit up and she said "Really?" turns out she had a dear late uncle who was a radio ham or somesuch.

Long story short it was easier than running into flames as a profession. But I was left with the uncomfortable feeling she would have preferred to screw her uncle. Who was a ham radio operator.

The consensus among American men "in the know" is we have little chance of catching the eye of an Australian woman, much less surviving the experience if we did.

When our President went to purchase his wives he didn't pick up a catalog that said "Australian Mail-Order Brides"

-------------

** The opposite is true.

Aussie gals go nuts for American men, cos their accents makes them all sound like film stars. If they happen to be wearing a uniform, the effect is doubled.

A major reason Aussie men are jealous and despise Yanks.

During WW2, the saying went that US servicemen were: " over sexed, over paid and over here ".

Resulted in the famous Brisbane riot in 1942.

..... Phil

..... Phil

Those Tom Cruise pictures were supposed to be a form of psychological warfare they weren't supposed to like them. Sorry about that.

Phil is just envious. I don't remember American male post-graduates doing that well back when I was a graduate student.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

There are plenty of very attractive and friendly single women in America we don't need to go to Australia for 'em thankfully!

It's also convenient because we speak the same language.

Also in America there aren't 150 types of highly deadly venomous or poisonous creatures waiting to murder you every time you step outside to go on a date or take a swim in the ocean.

---------------

** Never the question.

** FYI Australians speak English better than Americans do.

** ROTFL - not that ridiculous old myth again !!

FYI: Mr Rex,

Australia does not have hundreds of nukes aimed at it, nor is it a target f or terrorism from about 20 nations nor are half the population armed with h and guns, automatic rifles and shot guns nor do we have a massive race prob lem nor a significant illegal immigration problem nor is the place awash wi ll illegal drugs and the associated crime.

The police do not fear being shot every time they pull over a motorist.

We have had no school or church shootings and don't expect any.

Australia is one of the safest modern counties places you can live.

Plus there are very few bloody idiots like you here too.

..... Phil

a

Australian English is closer to British English than American English is.

This doesn't mean that Australians speak better English than Americans do - language is about communicating, mostly with your neighbours, and all lang uages work pretty much equally well for that.

Written language lets you communicate with people who are further away, and it isn't just written down speech.

o

It's not entirely false, but all those venomous creatures killed only 64 pe ople over the past twelve years

-kill-you-maybe-71490

and 34 of them died from anaphylactic shock, 27 of them from a bee or wasp sting, which kill people all around the world, and 27 died from snake bite.

for terrorism from about 20 nations nor are half the population armed with hand guns, automatic rifles and shot guns nor do we have a massive race pr oblem nor a significant illegal immigration problem nor is the place awash will illegal drugs and the associated crime.

Australia does have a race problem, Indigenous Australians die quite a but younger than the population as a whole. We are working to try and improve t he situation, but the problem is some way from being solved.

Not exactly true. There are a couple National Country Party politicians who are remarkably idiotic.

George Christensen comes to mind.

Even our current prime minster once showed up in Parliament fondling a lump of coal. He was courting the mining interests who seem to pay a lot of his party's election expenses, but it was a trifle moronic.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney