Is it picking or shaking grapes?

Earlier this week, wife Christina and I were invited to see a grape picking machine at work on a friend's vineyard. It was a new experience for both of us.

You see, we've only lived in grape country for just over three years and although I've contributed a significant amount of money to the wine industries over the past 50 years or so, I've never seen under the bonnet, so to speak.

But this night was different. We gathered at our friend's vineyard around 7 pm, just before darkness set in and watched the monster roll up and stop just in front of the first row of grapes. In the next row to the right, there was a tractor towing a hopper that has the amazing ability to raise itself to tip truck height so it can tip its load into a semi-trailer.

When the yellow monster starts, plastic "blades" (for want of a better word) move up and down and shake the grapes off the vine after which they are sucked up into a funnel that spits them out into the back of the hopper.

Incredibly, the non-fruit part of the vines, although scratched a little, are still intact and these have to be trimmed off by hand later.

The hopper carries a couple of tonnes of grapes and when full, transports them to the semi-trailer and tips them into the back.

I've always had a great respect for those people, much smarter than me, who make these types of machines - mechanical engineers. As I pondered the design of the machine, I couldn't help but wonder how many grape vines were destroyed trying to get the prototype working. Trial and error is always the way with new machines.

Apparently all the grapes in the Barossa Valley are shiraz grapes. They tend to be a bit smaller than those you buy in supermarkets. 

They are picked during the evening when it is cooler since the grapes are a bit harder and less likely to be damaged. Warm, soft grapes can split and lose their juice,

Next year, every time I open a bottle of red wine, at the back of my mind, I'll be wondering whether the grapes I saw picked on this evening helped to make the bottle I'm drinking. Statistically, the probability is probably less than zero, but I'll still think it. Wouldn't you?

Robin

Academia - Improving the world two words at a time

I used to be astonished at some of the nonsense that came from the Left-Wing, culture change, climate emergency, Alphabet people morons, but of late, I no longer become astonished, I simply accept that some of humanity is stark, raving, fucking mad. Like this lot.

Unfortunately, the academics that push this errant nonsense are those who are teaching our young people, the future leaders of our country.

We'll finish up with a country full of progressive morons who've let nutters tell them what to write and speak.

Everyone on the planet with half a brain knows that women are the gestational parents, that men are the non-gestational parents. But why the hell do we have to spell it out? Why can't we use "mother" and "father" like we have for most of the time the English language has existed?

How do the tenured, intelligence-challenged academics who dream up this nonsense think changing our language will solve poverty, homelessness, overpopulation in some parts, crime, shortages of food from global cooling, and the many other challenges facing humanity?

Maybe they don't think, which is why they come up with this nonsense.

Robin

Increasing wokeness leads to new jobs

When I saw this advertisement on a social media screen, I wondered what in hell a diversity and inclusion specialist does.

I have a background in human resources management and when I was working, we had the politically correct "equal opportunity", "inclusion" and other progressive woke-words thrust upon us.

Where I worked, for the Australian Government, it meant bending over backwards to find Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees, but we usually ended up with Caucasian/Aborigines, many of whom had had a "white" upbringing and weren't by any measures disadvantaged. The truth was, most of the real disadvantaged people had limited education and weren't work ready.

But we had targets and targets have to be met.

The real black people were said to be disadvantaged. Billions of dollars annually were spent trying to "close the gap", but after many decades, differences still exist. To close the gap, the people for whom the term is used need to do something to help themselves, but few did, despite the cornucopia of opportunities available to them.

Most of the "indigenous" taking up the opportunities to this day are "white Aborigines". Want someone to pay for your university course - call on the Australian Government. 

So, when British Aerospace Engineering Systems hires its Diversity and Inclusion specialist, what will they do?

Will they spend their time making sure they have a blend of Alphabet people in as many of their business units as possible? Will the concept of the best person for the job be eroded by, "Oh, we need a Sudanese moslem in that position."

All I can say is thank goodness I've done my 51 years of work and I don't have to put up with this bullshit anymore.

Robin

Australia Day 2021

In January, 1788 the First Fleet arrived from England and as some see it, "invaded" Australia. Most of us see it as a settlement of prisoners and others who would make Australia into the envy of the world as it is today.

Most of us who live here are happy to have been born here or been given the opportunity to immigrate here.

The great landmass of Gondwanaland or Terra Australis as it was later to be known, could have been settled by the Dutch, Portugese, French, Japanese, or several different countries. But the English got here first.

The English did what they did everywhere. They built railway lines, settlements, planted crops, mined the earth, and set up systems of governance that worked well.

Unfortunately, as seemed the case with all advanced civilisations moving into territories inhabited by primitive people, many bad things were done on both sides. While we need to learn from the past mistakes of our forefathers, after 233 years, there are some who still live in the past and can't move on from the horrors that were committed.

Today we are the benefactors of the First Fleet. We have a relatively stable and efficient Westminster System of government. We speak the most sought-after language on the planet - English that has become the language of choice for business, industry and science across the world. Millions of people from other countries want to live here and many immigrate each year.

We feel safe in Australia. We feel confident. We feel happy and content.

I consider myself blessed to have been born a ninth-generation Australian. My first ancestor came from Arbroath in Scotland and was "transported" to Australia for stealing cheese. Others followed from England and my paternal grandmother from the United States of America.

My wife's ancestors came from Germany. So our children are a mix of many nationalities.

Today as with every other day, I'm so thankful to be an Australian.

Robin

PS: My father was born on Australia Day and as a child convinced me that the nation had a holiday for his birthday. By the time I'd turned 24 I knew it was bullshit!