What’s wrong with these images?

The top image shows a brand new Honda 2,200W petrol generator for US$93 = A$141 approx. Pretty good, eh?

The second image shows the Australian retail price of what appears to be the same unit. The type number is slightly different, EU22i compared with EU2200i, but they look the same.

Look closely, though and the cheap unit is only 120Vac out, instead of 240Vac out. Yet a price difference of $140 vs $1799?

I was a bit tempted, but “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is”, and this looks too good to be true. It stinks of scammery. So, I said so in their Contact Us form, but in three days I’ve had no response. There’s no indication of the location of the seller, and I suspect you may not hear from them if you pledged your plastic. On the other hand, they do use Paypal, so I think that would give protection, but even so… Pity. I’d buy one and use a step-up transformer, or buy two and twin them to get 240V.

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This Covid-19 virus is certainly dominating the news at the moment. Panic buying and fighting over toilet paper? Good grief!

I must admit I’ve bought four packs of either 8 or 9 rolls, but there was no shortage where I shop. Aldi sells the eight-packs for $3.65 so I bought two. The nine-packs came from my local IGA. They weren’t priced but I wasn’t fussed and picked up two. Only when I got through the checkout did I find they were $8.65 each. Urrrrggh. Oh well, too bad.

I’ve bought a double fill of my medications, no problem. And a few shopping bags of canned goods, especially beans and fish, tuna, salmon etc. And Indian vegetarian foods. Bread mixes. Not huge quantities, just enough that I would be free of food worries for up to 28 days. And a big bottle of laundry detergent and simple cleaning stuff.

I think that will do me.

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I saw the eye specialist today for the first time in two years. The news? All good. There’s been almost no change since I saw him last. No retinal damage and the intra-ocular pressures were 16 and 17, meaning no glaucoma. No need to make another appointment, only if I want to in a couple of years. That’s good news.

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I’ve just finished reading the latest science fiction book by Stephen Baxter PhD called World Engines. All 564 pages of it. I’ve read almost all of his books and he writes HUGE themes. He’s an astrophysicist so what he writes is scientifically plausible. This book deals with moving a planet in its orbit around the sun so as to forestall a future collision in 1,000 years or so.

But I confess to some disappointment, again. His books read like lectures. There’s a strong storyline, of course, but there’s little tension. Nothing ever goes wrong. It’s like music without crescendos. There are no problems to overcome, no crises. Everything works on their spacecraft. The planet move works. Two men die in a nuclear explosion, but he spends little time on their end. They got there in a British spacecraft which uses CRT displays and they do their calculations on slide rules. Ridiculous.

I’ll make an exception for his book Titan which I will say is one of the best sci fi books I’ve read. It’s very long and you wonder whether the ending was necessary, but there.

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I’ve got 115 images up on the Picfair web site now. https://bullsnapper.picfair.com