Re: Hey Farml, Rob, David and All..

<Charlie> wrote in message
news:vc3dv3p68vbutj0eu287j50m4d6dpjfdod@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Temp and linear measurement conversion I can handle, with a converter
> ;-), but after reading the previous thread on monetary conversions and
> whatall.....fuhgeddaboutit.
>
> Thanks
> Charlie
>

In a rush to be silly I left off anything practical.  Aside form the
obvious
inversion of seasons the thing that you will find most foreign is the
climate.

 Taking just the lower 48 the USA is overall much cooler than Oz.  There
is
only a small part of Oz where it ever snows and much of that is wilderness
and
we don't live there.  There is virtually no permanent snow in Australia. 
Much
of the country is warm temperate and a fair bit sub-tropical or tropical.

Also Australia is rather dry.  Much of it is dryland or desert but few of
us
live there either.

Crocodile Dundee notwithstanding we are very urban, living mainly in big
cities on the somewhat wetter coastal fringe.   We have a strange love
affair
with the bush and popular culture will often idealise country people as
"real"
Australians.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

The soils are typically shallow and poor.  It is an old continent and much
of
the indigenous plant life is adapted to low fertility soil that results. 
The
soils on the coastal fringe can be better than the centre but good soil is
uncommon and usually found only by rivers as a result of alluvial
deposition.
We are carefully making that soil unproductive anywhere near a big city by
turning it into housing developments where it grows grass that nothing
eats
but the mower.

Australia has a wealth of minerals, coal, iron ore and bauxite to name
some
big 'ns.  Another way we destroy our best river valleys is to open cut
mine
them for coal or we longwall mine them and f--- up the rivers.  This will
continue while ever our Governments are addicted to the ex****t earnings
that
pay for our im****ts and the royalties paid by the miners.  I hope that I
don't
have to explain to my grandchildren the meaning of "you cannot eat coal"
but I
fear it is likely.

Despite such melancholy matters I count myself indeed fortunate to live
where
I live.

David