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You are one of those who EXPECT the gov't to Wipe your ass and provide all the services but don't vote or care about who gets elected or want to Pay for Gov't services. WE are SICK of hearing about you being called up. That was a Ballot and you lost. Others served Overseas and Many got traumatised. You got free training and met a few People you otherwise would not have. It's OVER Rover. Stop Bitching and get on with the rest of your Life. You are NOT the Only ONE who has had a $#!t deal at some stage.. Nev

The comparison with Qantas aircraft is misleading, because traditional coal-fired power stations already rely on vast amounts of underutilised equipment. Coal plants cannot ramp quickly, they cannot turn off at night, and they must run even when demand collapses — meaning the whole plant is burning fuel simply to stay online. This is the definition of expensive underutilisation.

Excessive nationalism puts me off. When you think about it clear-headedly we're a reasonably young (apart from the original inhabitants) immigrant country. We don't have a thousand years of culture, our own language, a national dish, etc etc. Our population is based on waves of English, Chinese, Dutch, German, Greek, Vietnamese, Italian, African, Islander and a whole bunch of other people, plus of course Indigenous Australians. The keynote songs and poetry we hold up as Australian were written by men that probably considered themselves English. Our system of laws is heavily based on England's and in name we're still subjects of England's king. Even our flag contains the UK's flag in the corner. When it comes to Americanism, even our first "local" car, the Holden FX, was heavily based on US cars. Clothing styles, music, popular culture and fast food have been based on US trends since at least post WWII. That's not to say we haven't got runs on the board, with vibrant Australian music, sport, theatre and literature. We have one of the world's best democracies, social services, and health care. Our education system is still excellent although unfortunately (in the case of universities) more focused on revenue than research. But to wave some mythical "uniqueness" around and try to block outside influences is pointless. Like those idiots that go around wearing Australian flags and protesting about immigration, not seeing the irony that we're all immigrants and those flags were made in China. Instead of closing off and looking inwards, like a backwards Trumpist country, we should be eagerly looking at everything that everyone else does, and taking the best ideas and using them ourselves. Someone actually makes billionaires pay tax? Let's use that. Someone's public hospital system has lower wait times? Let's see what they're doing differently and use it. Someone's school attendance and retention scores are higher than ours? What are they doing differently? Someone's prison recidivism rates are lower? Let's have a look at their justice system and see what we can steal. I don't mind bringing in best practice, no matter where it comes from. Good American movies and TV shows? Bring them on. What I do object to is bringing in the worst of other cultures. Privatisation of health care? F**k right off. Multinationals that pay no tax in Australia? No thanks. American gun culture? Jam it up your arse and pull the trigger.

Well done to the happy couple. Note how low key, private and billionaire free it was. Special wedding beer cans and a local honeymoon. Also a civil servant and all paid by himself not a conga line of donor suckholes ala LNP style. A genuine down to earth couple, we are lucky to have them. Completely unaffected by his status. Naturally DJ Albo did the music selection. Notable celebrity was the ring holder- his 🐕.

I was thinking about joining a dating site for people my age. It's called Carbon Dating.

BREAKING: Mary Trump exposes her Uncle Donald after his "quiet, piggy" moment by revealing exactly where his "despicable" misogyny comes from — and it explains so much. Nobody spills the beans quite like family does... "Donald's misogyny runs deep and is actually honestly come by because his entire family was a bunch of misogynists," Mary Trump said on her Youtube channel. "I want to remind you just how in character all this is by showing you a montage of clips from MSNBC. And I also, also while watching it, I want you to pay particular attention to the reactions Donald gets." She then played a montage that included Trump being confronted about calling women "fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals," a recording of him implying that Megyn Kelly mistreated him because she was menstruating, and him stating that he "never liked horse face." In one segment, he talked about a woman gaining a "massive amount of weight," in another he insulted a woman who accused him of sexual assault by saying "Believe me, she would not be my first choice." Mary Trump's video was prompted by Trump snapping "quiet, piggy" at a female reporter on Air Force One after she dared to ask him about Jeffrey Epstein. "Aside from the grotesque reactions of the people in those crowds," Mary Trump said, referring to the MAGA supporters at his rallies, "which quite frankly explains a lot about how we got here, Donald is admitting something very openly there as he has at other times." "He actually is admitting that he would totally rape a woman, just not somebody who looks like that. Essentially, he's saying he would only rape women he finds attractive," she continued. "I grew up with him. I grew up with these people so again, none of this is surprising," she went on. "What remains surprising to me, even though I shouldn't be surprised by this either I suppose, is that the American people are still willing to put up with his dehumanization of women, his treating them like second class citizens, and the contempt he so obviously has for half of the population." "In the Trump family, girls had no value. Donald's oldest sibling Maryanne was a girl," she said. "My grandfather never once considered her a viable option for taking over the family business that would have been my dad, his oldest son friend. That didn't work out but the next oldest Elizabeth would never have been considered either. So therefore, it fell to Donald who is not only incompetent and unskilled, he was just a terrible, terrible businessman. And my grandfather knew it but what mattered more was that he wasn't a woman. Clearly, Trump inherited his hatred of women from his corrupt, detestable father. This president sees women as sexual objects to be insulted, abused, and discarded. The fact that so many s-called "Christians" support him despite his complete lack of morals tells you everything that you need to know about the religious right in this country. Please like

Well they passed the stadium. Only this bunch of losers (and I lump together both major parties and the spineless independents who voted yes) could take leave of their senses, bend the entire state over a barrel, and pimp our collective arse to the AFL. Only they could ignore the planning experts and every economist, all of whom comprehensively rejected this monstrosity, and approve something which will cost well over $1b, bring in revenue of less than half of that, dominate the historic Hobart waterfront, and has no parking or public transport. Oh, and when in use will block up traffic on the busiest street in the city. At a time when Tasmania is already holding historic levels of debt, just been downgraded by S&P, and is crying out for staff and services in health, education and justice. This guy puts it better than I ever could. Victoria, stop complaining about your state government, I think we've got it worse right now. https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/04/tasmania-macquarie-point-stadium-cost/

It is not surprising that the right wing of politics are heading down hill. They keep rabbiting on about how they will make electricity cheaper but have no plans on how this will happen. They keep harping on about "base load" power a term from last century when everything was coal. It is "peak demand" that is the issue now and during heat waves with the huge demand for air conditioning etc brown outs are a reality. These have happened even before there was much renewable energy around. We are awash with energy in the middle of the day now with so much commercial solar and wind and the huge amount of rooftop solar on homes and businesses so storing that energy is just common sense. Many early solar farms are switching off during peak production when the spot price goes negative as they never envisaged they would need to store energy. In NSW home owners are limited to exporting a maximum of 5 kW to help prevent grid overload. So if you are producing more and have no storage the excess is dissipated as heat. Storage is what we need. Batteries are expensive though but fast to deploy. Pumped hydro is a great way to do this as well but costly & time consuming to set up. One part of the puzzle is State & Federal subsidised batteries for home owners. My installer said to me that up until June it was all new rooftop solar. From July on it has been all new batteries, most on properties that already have large solar systems & some like me installing both. These do not need any new infrastructure at all and reduce the load on existing poles & wires so the subsidies are paying for them selves.

Liar Leavett provided reporters with the doctor's summary of Trump's MRI examination. The summary said that the MRI showed that Trump's heart and ciculatory system was just fine, as were his abdominal organs. Can you believe that teh MRI only examined his torso? Given his many physical symptoms associated with muscle control, surely the MRI must have examined the contents of his cranium. But it probably only showed the cranial space filled with sheep shit.

Identity? WTF? National identity? WTF? Sort out your personal identity first. I will trust you relative to how you present yourself to me. We are all passengers on Planet Earth. Fussing about continental, political, or other levels of idrntity is trivial in the bigger scheme of things.

I have had my new solar system & battery now for 1 week. So far I have not imported any energy & have exported about 75kWh. I have charged my EV twice, charged my ride on mower twice, run the air conditioning for several hours on 5 out of 7 days, run a freezer & large fridge/freezer & used electricity on other household things as normal like cooking, washing, dishwasher, TV, lights, computers etc. The battery has never got down to below 40% before it starts recharging in the morning. I have 5.8 kW of solar panels with 3.0 kW yet to come on line. The battery is 18.64 kWh & is expandable up to 41.76 kWh. We have had mostly sunny or partly cloudy days with one mostly overcast. Cost $11,650.00 which will take about 6 years to pay back. The feed in tariff is poor at 2.8c/kWh so my only cost will be the exorbitant supply charge of nearly $2.00 a day offset a bit by the feed in tariff.. My long term goal is to go off grid but I will probably need to add a couple of extra 4.66 kWh modules to the battery. Time will tell. There are plenty of people like me doing the same especially those living on acreage or in country areas prone to power cuts and a lot more adding batteries but not intending to leave the grid. This just one part of our clean energy future.

And how is that working out for you? Poor voting turnout does not stick it to the pollies. Most countries don't have compulsory voting and have low turnouts, but so what? Willingly paying fines when you say you are struggling to pay your power bills seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face. How does not voting achieve anything?

Two feet is enough for a tiger shark, they happily chase large fish through the waves to grab a bite. The most common way to catch a big shark is from the beach, because thats where the fish are. Thats a big hint for survival, change of tide plus dawn and dusk are the big beach fishing times, also prime shark times. But rgmwa, your on point , if your not in the water you are normally safe. The more people in a area increases the risk. Surfers are particularly at risk as from below the look like a large Tuna, Mulloway etc or dolphin alone or a seal. Been killed fishing from a boat is also a nasty surprise- recently a game fisherman hunting Marlin in the big Port Stephens competition caught a large Bull shark? On his line and was dragged into the water never to be seen again. I assume the beast turned the tables and lunched on him. I expect that this may be the cause of many a lost fisherman out solo, boat found perfect and sometimes trolling along, no one on board. A freak accident? No, surprised it doesn't happen more. I have seen guys in a 12' tinny come in with a 2.5 metre shark onboard and they videoed getting it aboard still alive and thrashing- life may be short for those young fools. Instagram fame can have a very short life. We call sharks the taxman, they deserve their fair share and essential for a well run ecosystem. Many a big fish comes up from the deep just a head on the line minus 20 kg of body. Mother nature does not care how big your game boat is, nor your harbour address. Doesn't give a shit about YouTubers, holiday heroes or even salties like me. Once you enter the salt water, you are at her total mercy. Beware of entering the liquid jungle, there's Tigers below.

Facthunter - Arsenic is not used in gold mining, perhaps you were thinking of cyanide. Arsenic can be a by-product of gold extraction. Cyanide is safe enough when used correctly, the important thing is to keep alkalinity of the aqueous gold/cyanide solution high, at least a pH of 10 or more, by using lime thoroughly blended with the ore or tailings. I personally used a lot of cyanide for gold mining in the 1980's, our family mining and mining contracting business carried out a lot of vat leaching for gold recovery - and the interesting part is, we re-treated huge tonnages of tailings, that had all been treated with cyanide, from the 1890's up to the 1980's. We had no problems with any cyanide residues or handling, and the mining and leaching operations were all subject to environmental regulations.

For the CORRUPT ULTRA RICH MAYBE. It won't be CLEAN for anybody and IF you don't LIKE what the KING does you won't go far. Your Golden Wonder is 100% FAKE. Nev

This thread is supposed to be about celebrating positives. We did not just decide one day to go on a strenuous bush walk. Since retiring 4 years ago we have done about 3 bush walks a week. There are many walks we would not do. Known bush walks are very easy to research in terms of difficulties. As far as age goes one of the greatest threats to health is inactivity. This is a threat both physical health and mental health. Depression is not uncommon amongst the aging. Whilst bush walking we do cross paths with older bush walkers who are older than us and obviously very fit. I do in fact have a cardiac condition. I do yearly stress echocardiograms. The last one whilst noting my abnormalities pronounced me to be much fitter than the average for my age (63). If we're not fit I would be having symptoms, I do not. My cardiologist advises me to keep up the exercise It is important that as we age we don't give up.

If you don't know the relative costs, why are you arguing that renewables are not cheaper? Anyway this thread is about politics. Happy to have a discussion about the relative costs and merits of various types of generation over on the climate change thread. But getting back to politics, these are the facts: The Libs had their arses handed to them by people voting for the Teals, and did not get those seats back when they went to the last election with their uncosted and unrealistic nuclear plans. Compulsory voting in Australia means that overall, people go for the centre. 65+% of people in Australia rate action on climate change as one of the top 2 issues. Older voters are dying off and a massive proportion of younger voters want action on climate change (because guess what, they have to live on this earth a lot longer with the effects). Apart from the few thousand idiots who watch Sky News, voters are not particularly interested in culture wars, DEI, wokeness (whatever that is), the colour of their neighbour's skin or other non-issues. With those political facts, it seems clear that the Libs have decided to commit political suicide. I don't actually want them to. I'm not an LNP voter but I want a strong opposition with sensible, costed policies - backed up by science - to hold the government to account. They can't do that when the conservatives, desperate to keep suckling at the teat of the fossil fuel industry, throw out ridiculous ideas like government funded nuclear power plants, government funded propping up of elderly coal plants, inefficient and expensive carbon capture and storage. The LNP is supposed to be the party of the free market. There are plenty of players looking to provide wind farms, big batteries, solar farms, household solar & batteries. There are zero players looking to build new coal and nuclear without it being funded by YOU the taxpayer. Ask yourself why?

I used to work in a lab with an incredibly ambitious bloke who was obsessed with collecting skulls. Just obsessed!! Like, he would do anything to get ahead.

Trump said the "No Kings protests" were too small and ineffective. The last person to say that was Stormy Daniels.

Maybe you should send a stern letter to BOM?

The developers, combined with the vast sums of money available in the sporting arena today, will always get their way. I think this stadium is idiocy, especially the siting, and the monetary burden on such a small number of the Australian population. It's not like the money is being thrown into a major energy or water or food security plan, or other future national civilisation security outlay - it's just the equivalent of a Roman amphitheatre. The W.A. Govt outlaid £2.5B ($5B) for the massive (for its time) Kalgoorlie reticulated water scheme, between 1899 and 1902. The project involved a large new dam, a 600km pipeline, 8 large steam-driven pumping stations, a sizeable number of storage tanks, and all the associated infrastructure. The State population was only 140,000 people at the time, and the howls of outrage over the massive repayment burden (for centuries, claimed the opponents) on the W.A. population, were loud and long - and the loudest and most virulent opposition came from the editor of the local Sunday Times, one Frederick Vosper. Vosper's continuous vicious attacks on the architect of the scheme, Charles Yelverton O'Connor, led to O'Connor committing suicide under the stress of the attacks, and overwork. Regardless, the scheme has been a major success, and has returned its outlay in spades over 123 years, and Kalgoorlie has produced hundreds of billions worth of gold and other important minerals, thanks to the ample supply of water available to the W.A. Goldfields. I see no similar success or monetary return for the Tasmanians on their sporting outlay. The only beneficiaries will be that small number of people involved in major sports, and sports events are not energy, water or food security plans.

I like the concept of having independant power sources. Once I get an EV I won't care who owns all the oil wells. My driving cost is not going to rely on some foreign cartel setting the price of fuel. I won't care about the anti renewable lobby. nor will I care about grid stability. Furthermore, I suspect that quite a lot of others are following this same path.

Thank goodness you weren’t on the bike.

Imagine if he joined our forum, non of us would get through all his posts.😂

Random RAVINGS. What Place would you RATHER live? Nev

Latest Breaking News . God has yet to successfully arrange a meeting with TRUMP. Trump Claims He's too busy RUNNING THE world. Nev

I think they are way classier than that. Bali has never been a go to place for inner city types. Somewhere local and chilled, bogan free is more their style. He certainly won't be getting Gina's jet to fly around in like Barnaby or Scummo did.

GON, that is just so wrong it's not even worth commenting anymore.

South Australia isn’t expensive because it has lots of renewables — it’s expensive because it still relies on gas for backup, and gas is extremely costly. As storage grows and gas dependence falls, SA’s prices fall too (as they already do during sunny/windy periods). The idea that the old coal-based system was inherently cheap or stable isn’t accurate — it was just oversized and inflexible, and we paid the cost whether we needed the power or not. South Australia's prices are predicted to fall by 15% during the next 10 years, according to AEMC. Wholesale prices are already dropping 27%. Only 38% of your power bill is for power. The rest is for maintenance, poles and wires etc. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/02/energy-prices-falling-electricity-cheaper-households#:~:text=As households electrify – switching to,bills could halve by 2050. Fossil-fuel power is yesterday’s technology. Coal and gas were vital in the past, but they’re now expensive, unreliable, and being outcompeted everywhere. The cost of new wind and solar is lower than even the running cost of old coal, and investors are abandoning fossil projects because they no longer stack up financially. Our coal fleet is ageing, breaking down more often, and too costly to maintain. Every coal station in Australia has a closure date because the private sector can’t justify keeping them open. Meanwhile, renewables and storage are now the dominant new sources of generation globally because they’re fast to build, low-cost, and flexible. This isn’t ideology—it’s economics. Fossil fuel power is in long-term decline because it no longer fits a modern electricity system. The future grid will be cheaper, cleaner and more reliable without it. The business world is already voting with its wallet. If coal and gas were truly cheaper and more efficient, investors would be lining up to fund them. Instead, banks, super funds and insurers have walked away because fossil fuels are high-risk, high-cost and increasingly unprofitable. Meanwhile, almost all new investment is going into renewables and storage. Even the big mining companies — some of the most conservative, profit-driven businesses around — are choosing renewables because they’re cheaper and more reliable on remote sites. BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue, South32, and Gold Fields are all building large solar, wind and battery systems because they cut fuel costs and improve energy security. This isn’t ideology — it’s economics. While people argue online about whether the transition “should” happen, the market has already decided. The shift away from fossil fuels is happening, accelerating, and financially unstoppable.

Sharks only attack when you are wet. Stay dry. As well, that spot was signed with Shark and No Swimming signs.

The European theatre in WWII was won by the incredible manufacturing and agricultural production possible in the USA due to the USA being out of range of effective attack by the European Axis powers. That's not to deny the contribution of the British. The Axis powers (really only Germany) suffered the direct opposite and so lost. I reckon it was a bit different in the war against Japan since the problem there was to dig out the Japanese from their defensive positions. You could say that the Yanks in their land operatoins were working in spaces where there was not room to swing a cat. I think that one of the greatest manufactured item leading to the Allied victory in the Pacific was the very humble Marston matting which enable the Allies to establish air superiority very rapidly, and to be able to repair any bomb damage to runways very quickly. Have you ever given thought to who started the war in the Asia/Pacific? Most people who don't know the histrory of the first 40 years of the 20th Century will blame Japan, but American corporate interests were very much involved in preventing Japanese economic development. The Asian/Pacific war was a trade war, not an ideological one like the Europena war.

Michelangelo's David returns to Italy after 3 years touring the U.S. ......

You forgot the "because". "Because Jerry is our most qualified and trusted IT/coder/computing expert, he is not an Apple adopter." Makes sense that way! 😜

Had a great ride today, over to Richmond, through to Sorell, then up the Tasman Highway to Orford on the East Coast. Interesting names along that road. I went over the Bust-me-gall and Break-me-neck passes, fortunately doing neither, then up Black Charlie's Opening without even buying him dinner first. On the way back I came via Midway Point and while passing the end of the runway at Hobart Airport, saw a C-17 parked on the tarmac so rode in for a closer look. Very enjoyable!

Just snapped this in Hobart in front of a sweets shop. Not sure why Esmeralda has balls, and the Tassie Map is usually a short distance away from the freckle...

I guess this was way too subtle for you blokes. The positive I celebrated was that my Mother reached the age of 100 years and is still mentally acute. I have been so lucky to have had the past three years since I came up here to reunite with her after sparse contact for forty or so years. She received greetings from everyone in government from King Charles to the local Shire mayor.

Me too, although we do often go on a bush walk that does have a narrow path with a canyon on one side that whilst we don't find it scary we do take great care. Many activities take care and planning and have the potential for bad outcomes. Many of us here have flown little aeroplanes that many would describe as dangerous. By the way in the picture of me near the cliff edge, I am about 2 metres away from the edge. The greater danger on this walk were the steep rocky areas we had to scramble up. Mrs Octave did have her feet slide from under her and landed on her arse and grazing an elbow slightly. You have to live your life though, can't stay at home wrapped in cotton wool.

Agreed, sharks are complaining about the poor quality of tourists.

I wonder if different factions within the one party would become a sort of opposition. This might be similar when party's meet now to determine policy

'Tis better to end a sentence with a proposition than a preposition.

A proper funeral would have been better than swept under the carpet.

I think the life span of EV batteries is proving to be better than expected. This is not just anecdotal And research from fleet management technology Geotab suggests EV batteries on the market today could last 20 years or more. That report found that newer EVs degrade by about 1.8 per cent per year, a significant drop from the 2.3 per cent degradation rate seen in 2019. Meanwhile, a study published in Nature Energy in January this year found that in the UK, EVs were achieving comparable lifespans to ICE vehicles, even under more intensive use. EV batteries may last 40 pct longer than previously thought, new study shows We have debated this before. There are pros but considerable cons to battery swap. The short times quoted at existing battery swap stations sound good, but you have to consider the relatively small number of vehicles using them. Consider these charging centres. Insights About FAQ For business The Largest EV Charging Hubs In the World I would seem a little problematic to replace these purely with battery swap without creating queues and logistical problems. On a trip with my son in NZ in his Tesla, we made 3 charging stops. All of these stops were to just top up whilst having coffee It's a piss stop. The first one was about 40 minutes in the car park of a supermarket, where we picked up some supplies and had a coffee. The other stops were no more than 10 minutes. With the battery swap system, I guess you would have to decide on the optimal swapping point. There would be no point in swapping a battery that still had substantial range. Also, on the particular trip, it would be hard to imagine battery swap facilities in the backblocks of NZ, but plenty of charging centres. Another issue is that my son's Tesla is charged solely from his solar system (except on long trips) Why on earth would he want to go to a battery swap service and pay instead of using his own clean power? In the end, the market will decide. Given that battery swap vehicles can also be charged by conventional means, people will do what is cheapest and most convenient.

John Laws has bit the dust. Albo released a statement stating "Generations of Australians trusted and respected him for telling it straight..." which I thought a bit strange given the cash for comment saga.

As a lifetime renter, I offer this: if the tenant has been satisfactory; paid rent on time and looked after the property, then renew the lease. A good tenant is a bird in hand. If you sell the house, you will only end up with a wad of money that is decreasing in value due to inflation. If you have already paid off any mortgage on the house, then the $400 per week is mostly yours, after allowing for maintenance and agent's fees. And don't let the agent con you into upping the rent. Agent's only do that to increase their cut. If your tenant has been good to you, why not give a reward by not increasing the rent. You can always let the tenant know that it might go up later if costs rise too much.

James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helical structure of DNA passed away on 6 November at the age of 97.

The problem with the housing market is that it's been taken over by investors. There needs to be a fundamental shift in how houses are viewed. They should be a home rather than an investment or part of a superannuation portfolio. I know supply is the big thing but I do think removing capital gains discounts and negative gearing would do a lot to make it less attractive to investors.