5 Days with no comms

[Mary Terry]

We finally got StarLink satellite internet and it's awesome although expensive. It's fast, has never gone out and we've experienced only a few minutes of weak signal during major thunderstorms.

Where we live, the electricity goes out frequently due to extreme weather, so we had a whole house generator and a propane gas tank installed. It is such a relief knowing that we no longer have to deal with dragging out the portable generator and hooking everything up.

 

[Outdated]

We finally got StarLink satellite internet and it's awesome although expensive. It's fast, has never gone out and we've experienced only a few minutes of weak signal during major thunderstorms.

That's what it was like in and around Darwin during the wet season, sometimes cloud cover was thick enough to completely block reception but those sorts of storms rarely last more than 20 minutes. Power cuts were usually only short but incredibly common, it's the fruit bats. They land on powerlines the same as birds do but they climb around like monkeys and they have a big enough wingspan to reach out from one line to the next.

 

[Forest Cat]

I was wondering what you were doing, hadn't seen you here in a while, but since you live in Australia I just assumed that a crocodile or a snake or a kangaroo got you.

 

[Mary Terry]

I was wondering what you were doing, hadn't seen you here in a while, but since you live in Australia I just assumed that a crocodile or a snake or a kangaroo got you.

I think it was a fruit bat that got him.

 

[Judge]

I was just doing a bit of reading about why the Netherlands never seriously attempted to colonize Australia. Very bad first impressions, but then I suppose that's what they get for only exploring the more rugged north and west of the continent.

And Botany Bay was so much further south and east, and in more fertile lands. Their loss...

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

That's what it was like in and around Darwin during the wet season, sometimes cloud cover was thick enough to completely block reception but those sorts of storms rarely last more than 20 minutes. Power cuts were usually only short but incredibly common, it's the fruit bats. They land on powerlines the same as birds do but they climb around like monkeys and they have a big enough wingspan to reach out from one line to the next.

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I thought it would be cool to have bats that big around here. Then I noticed; that looks like a mango tree. I have to fight off enough frugivores as it is.

I second the vote for Starlink.

 

[Outdated]

I was just doing a bit of reading about why the Netherlands never seriously attempted to colonize Australia.

They called it Van Dieman's Land and vowed never to return. They did return though, in the early 1900s when we discovered diamonds near the Ord River. They did have interactions with local people though, there's cave paintings of them complete with the figures smoking pipes.

Forgotten little side note in history - When Japan first started attacking Darwin in February 1942 we were very poorly defended, all our troops were in Europe. Your lot didn't get here until October, in between times it was the Dutch that saved our sorry arses. They never even get a footnote in the written histories but I've been to the Adelaide River War Cemetery and there's a whole section devoted to the Dutch that died for Australia.

Then I noticed; that looks like a mango tree. I have to fight off enough frugivores as it is.

That definitely looks like a mango tree and probably is. Although they can be a problem those furry little faces do a lot of pollination, they eat nectar and pollen as well as fruit.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I have tiny wasps and native bees to pollinate my mangos, thank you very much.

I get your point about your bats being necessary pollinators. We do have some night blooming plants that are pollinated by bats, but nothing one would normally eat.

My very first introduction to fruit bats was as a young adult, back when computers were the size of apartment buildings, was in a recipe book I took out of the library.

There was listed a recipe for “fruit bat soup.” I assumed this was something like “Welsh rabbit,” a name that sounds as it would have meat in it but doesn’t. Then I saw directions that included skinning and pan frying the bats.

In order to find out more, I had to drive to the public library and use the card catalog to find out and then search the library book shelves using the Dewey Decimal System to locate an actual bound book made out of paper and ink.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

They called it Van Dieman's Land and vowed never to return. They did return though, in the early 1900s when we discovered diamonds near the Ord River. They did have interactions with local people though, there's cave paintings of them complete with the figures smoking pipes.

Forgotten little side note in history - When Japan first started attacking Darwin in February 1942 we were very poorly defended, all our troops were in Europe. Your lot didn't get here until October, in between times it was the Dutch that saved our sorry arses. They never even get a footnote in the written histories but I've been to the Adelaide River War Cemetery and there's a whole section devoted to the Dutch that died for Australia.


That definitely looks like a mango tree and probably is. Although they can be a problem those furry little faces do a lot of pollination, they eat nectar and pollen as well as fruit.

Those of us on this side of the world have little to no idea how many Australians died in the World Wars.

I only was introduced to the topic via Australian films.

 

[Outdated]

I get your point about your bats being necessary pollinators. We do have some night blooming plants that are pollinated by bats, but nothing one would normally eat.

They're horrific carriers of ticks and fleas too.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

They're horrific carriers of ticks and fleas too.

Here, they carry rabies.

 

[Outdated]

Those of us on this side of the world have little to no idea how many Australians died in the World Wars.

Our government of the day denied that anything was happening up in Darwin because they were embarrassed by it. They said it was malicious rumours designed to weaken morale. It took 18 months to push the Japs back to New Guinea, while our government kept telling us it wasn't true.

Even in the 1990s children were being taught "Darwin was bombed once, on the 19th of February 1942. The family that ran the post office died."

In that first bombing run on the 19th of February the US lost 200 merchant seamen with the USS Cleary, total death toll for that day was close to 500 people.

 

[Outdated]

Here, they carry rabies.

That's a disease we don't have here, and we're pretty strict with quarantine, just ask Johnny Dep. He thought he could get away with bringing his dogs to Australia by sneaking them in on his private jet. Wrong. It took him 3 months to get his dogs back and we really don't care how famous people are or how much money they have, culturally that sort of thing doesn't impress us at all. If anything it has the reverse effect.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

Our government of the day denied that anything was happening up in Darwin because they were embarrassed by it. They said it was malicious rumours designed to weaken morale. It took 18 months to push the Japs back to New Guinea, while our government kept telling us it wasn't true.

Even in the 1990s children were being taught "Darwin was bombed once, on the 19th of February 1942. The family that ran the post office died."

In that first bombing run on the 19th of February the US lost 200 merchant seamen with the USS Cleary, total death toll for that day was close to 500 people.

So the US is not the only government that lies to its citizens about death tolls. Sigh.