Total ship show: Quarantine crisis deepens, 60,000 new cars stuck at sea and ports
New-car delivery delays are expected to get worse before they get better, as more than 60,000 vehicles are stranded offshore or in a backlog awaiting quarantine clearance at ports around Australia.

https://www.drive.com.au/news/quarantine-crisis-deepens-thousands-cars-stranded/

"Ford says its biggest shipping bottlenecks are in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle (near Perth)."

Good to see that @STANDY has got Darwin under control .

 

No comment

 

I really do wish the new car supply would get back to normal so I can get a used car at pre-Covid prices.

 

Sabotage. Chinese Metal eating Slugs. Bloody German Car Manufacturers responsible .....

 

Way back in college I worked on a receiving dock unloading precision hydraulic gear from Germany and France. (After graduation was hired in inside sales). This stuff was always long lead and when the crates had to be fumigated.. ugh. This happened quite frequently. One of the truckers used to refer to the inspector as “bugs”. The customers were not amused.

 

This is how the brown marmotated stink bugs came to the US about a decade+ ago. Apparently they were in a palette of wood delivered to Pennsylvania from China and have created havoc since. Beyond being annoying in the house (they come in to winter and hide) they are crop killers.
This is serious stuff.

 

The species is one of the most dangerous pests in agriculture and one of the least wanted animals, as it can transmit various diseases to both animals and humans given the parasites it harbors.


The “Achatina fulica” is one of the most invasive species in the world and the Department of Agriculture in every country consider it as one of the most damaging species for agriculture and crops. It is known to eat at least 500 different species of plants.



Reproduction

The Giant African Land Snails are hermaphrodite which means that they have the reproduction organs for both males and females, so they have the capability to self-fertilize, but they do not usually do it. They mate in the “traditional way.” However, sometimes young or immature snails only produce spermatozoa, while adults can also produce eggs.


In the pre-copulation stage, both snails approach and one of them locate behind the other and position above the shell. If the one underneath accepts it, it moves back, and the top snail begins copulation to transfer sperm and fertilize the eggs of its mate. In the case of snails of similar size, both can fertilize the eggs of the other simultaneously. Coupling usually takes place during the night.


About 8-20 days after intercourse, the snail puts between 100 and 500 eggs in a nest beneath the ground or between rocks and vegetation. Laying occurs every 2 or 3 months. Eggs hatch after 11-15 days, but the offspring do not receive any care from the parents.


They don’t have a defined breeding period, and on average they lay 5-6 clutches of eggs per year, containing on average 200 eggs per clutch if there are the right conditions. Therefore, delivering close to 1,200 eggs per year and with a hatch success probability of 90%, this species can quickly become a pest.

 

The Spotted Lanternfly showed up here from China a few years back. See them everywhere now and they threaten trees.

That snail is both cute and terrifying at the same time.

 

It is - it's the reason I have zero ash trees on my property now, and had to cut 30+ of them down over the last 10 years.

Emerald ash borer - Wikipedia

Zebra mussels, purple loosetrife, etc. The list goes on and on...

On top of contamination, there are species introduced in other ways, like people buying ornamental plants that end up in the wild. Giant hogweed is often in the news for example (don't go near it - the sap can cause severe burns if it gets on your skin and you are exposed to sunlight).

There's no end to the ways we are fucking up the ecosystems we live in...we all have forever chemicals in our blood, and eat microplastics on a regular basis...but hey we all get to have our trinkets, which is what is really important!

 

And cheaper materials if we import it rather than buying domestic!
Back in 2003 I documented one of the last nail, tack and brad manufacturers in the US- they were closing their doors after over 100 years in business. They exclusively used Bethlehem steel to make their fasteners and supplied every major US hardware store (mom&pop and chains) until the importation of Korean steel slowly drove them out of business.
They were clearing out their warehouse while I was there and they gave me several boxes of old stock fasteners. I compared one of their nails against a box of Home Depot nails I had driving them into boards. The HD nails bent most of the time with an off-center strike and once you pulled them they were useless. The US made nails drove perfectly strait every time and I was able to reuse them over and over. Still when a few boxes of them.

You get what you pay for.

 

If you want to see a great example, visit the thread on fragrances

 

Smelling good makes the End Times more pleasant.

 

Buck up peeps... at least we've got meds & procedures that'll keep us all alive (and mostly miserable) for longer than nature intended.

I, for one, am not offended -ethically or religiously- by the Twin Grim Sisters better known as Euthanasia & Suicide.

Chickenshit accusations aside, I am a believer in knowing when the jig is up. Indefinite suffering is great for books and Hollywood endings only.

To anyone left wondering, "How the fuck did we go from cars at sea and flesh eating slugs and stinkbugs to euthanasia and suicide?"... to my simpleton brain it always comes down to a basic realization ~

humans ruin everything.

 

Don’t mind the invasive chicken kebabs that made it’s way to our shores

 

This may not be the best time to introduce my new dog..,

 

The rare raccooncoondog.