mike carey

Today, the weekly rural affairs [for city viewers] program did a summary of the situation for grain and pulse growers (partly to contextualise the Chinese imposition of 85% tariffs on Australian barley exports on [ahem] anti-dumping grounds). It's sowing time for winter grain crops right now and it's been a good autumn for rain. Most Western Australian farmers are substituting another crop for their planned barley. The one striking note from the story was retail demand for flour. It covered a smaller organic miller that had seen a 300% increase in demand and had to employ extra staff and run double the number of shifts, and the biggest miller in NSW that had seen a 70% increase and had to go to 24/7 operations. I didn't look for flour last time I was at the shops, but last time I looked there was no bread flour, only the lower protein all purpose (and store brand) types.

Not something that the good people of this forum would do, of course ... [MEDIA=twitter]1261440564173520897[/MEDIA]

Guys I think I might want to hire at some stage, that was why I started doing it. The benefits to me have been that I can see their recent activity (pics, travel, 'available now'), and unanticipated benefits, if they change their handle you keep track of them, and if they reopen their account after having closed it, they reappear in your buddies list.

I would love to take credit for it, but sadly I did not.

When I went to Aldi today, the barber's shop in the shopping centre was open for the first time in a while, but I need to wash my hair before I go there! (And I could safely wait a bit longer.) On a separate note, I hadn't been looking for masks, but Aldi had a big stack of them, boxes of 50 for $69.90. I didn't buy any but may go back and see if they're still there.

I have noted the path of the Australian flu season elsewhere, but the advent of Covid-19, although it is cutting a swathe through our society, has not been without effects that could be to our benefit. Although the flu season isn't fully under way, the incidence of flu cases has reportedly been running at 10% of the level last year. In parallel, the uptake of the influenza vaccine has been double the level last year. Both of those point to a lower level of influenza this year. In addition, social distancing directed at minimising the spread of Covid-19 is likely to have the effect of reducing other respiratory infections that are spread by similar vectors. There will be debates about whether that sort of anecdata can be relied on without peer reviewed reporting, or whether any link is causal or simply correlation. If the incidence of other diseases is lower this year, the balance of probabilities is that the Covid-19 restrictions were what caused it. (Anecdote: Interviewing a NZ family that had been locked down for four weeks, on the TV news here, they reported that the usual sequence of colds and sniffles suffered by the children had been absent this year.) In the likely event that there is no vaccine next winter (yours from December and ours from June 2021) the continued application of Covid-19 precautions is likely to similarly lower the levels of other disease.

That remains to be seen, I'm not getting good vibes that our government will be permitting overseas travel by then, and the current trajectory of the pandemic in the US doesn't increase my confidence that the US would be on a limited list of permitted destinations.

Everyone needs to see a little puggle. [MEDIA=twitter]1260193530733002754[/MEDIA]

That looks sooo much like a Canberra scene!

Serendipitously, Nigella Lawson's recipe for salt and vinegar potatoes turned up in my Twitter timeline as this was being discussed here! I have to try it. https://www.nigella.com/recipes/salt-and-vinegar-potatoes

Thanks for posting this. I heard about the arrest on the radio this morning and was about to post an update to this thread. I hope that the police can secure a conviction, that would vindicate the time and money Scott's brother devoted to having the original coroner's finding overturned. It's also fitting that the police commissioner personally rang Steve Johnson to convey the news of the arrest.

A Magnum is a chocolate coated ice-cream in Australia. Happy with that comparison as well. (Adds item to shopping list.)

Ain't that the truth!

At least two of them were carriers.

I don't know about this system of registering contacts, but the one used by an app being rolled out in Australia requires the two phones to be in contact for 15 minutes before it becomes a contact of interest.

Victoria Police are managing to maintain their sense of humour. [MEDIA=twitter]1258303611097890816[/MEDIA]

Slightly deviating from grocery shopping, but related, I went to a different shopping centre today, catching the bus rather than walking. Three o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon and I was the only person on the bus. They aren't taking cash fares (only travel cards or tickets from one of the rare ticket machines), and they aren't using the front doors. Crowds are small, as you'd expect, if 'crowd' is the right word, but the place was active. One shop had a 'stand behind' line 1m from the counter (only come closer than that to pay) and all either requested or insisted on card payment. I went to our equivalent of AAA, they were in the office but the door was closed. I had to ring them from just outside the door to do the business I wanted to do, but a staffer had to come to the door to clarify one point because the shopping centre muzak was too loud. Bus home had a total of three passengers. It was a beautiful autumn day out, and I did have some walking around in the sun between the places I needed to go. And it's officially become 'cold', although here in Canberra that is marked by a below zero (Celsius) overnight minimum, not freezing days, and we've had -1.4 degrees and a couple that were 0 on the news bulletin but rounded down from 0.2 or 0.3.

I agree with all of that, and although it may be unusual the order of magnitude difference in the percentage in the MO numbers makes little difference to your thesis. We are about to see in both hemispheres whether the change in weather has an effect. Here, the PM seems to be rushing the relaxation of precautions, but not by much. Oh, and don't fret about the percentage, it's incredibly easy to mess up converting a fraction into a percentage, and I speak from experience!

I think that's just over 4%. You are, of course correct that the actual rate is certain to have been far lower if wider testing had taken place.

I was sure I read in another thread that there was a shortage.

I have no empirical data but I suspect sourdough is trending here. But yes, that is the story of the year so far!

I certainly have, and even though most of the calls he responds to are from straight listeners, more often than not they are about relationship issues rather than the purely sexual. I really like it, and have been a subscriber for a few years. I haven't listened for a few weeks, I need to catch up!