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My wife mentioned today that her friend calls her daughter "Dodo", and said "What kind of person calls their grown daughter Dodo??" Quickly I said "Maybe their ex stinks?" Got a laugh, for once!

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/

Base salary $233,660. As a cabinet minister she gets additional 72.5%, so add $169,403. Puts her a bees dick over $400k. Are you saying that someone on $400k, who already gets her own free travel and prime seat at any sporting event she wants, can't afford to pay for her family out of her own pocket?

Not Albo personally, but ALP minister Anika Wells. Thousands of taxpayer dollars for air fares to fly her husband and kids to three AFL grand finals and two interstate tests. And they claim it doesn't breach guidelines. Obviously the guidelines need an urgent overhaul. If any of us wanted to fly our partner around the country, we'd have to pay for it ourselves. And I bet she's earning a hell of a lot more than any of us. And before you go calling me out for ALP bashing, I would be just as disgusted if it was a LNP member.

One of the better Trump cartoons I've seen Nicola Jennings on Putin’s dealings with Trump over Ukraine – cartoon https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/dec/07/nicola-jennings-putin-dealings-trump-ukraine-cartoon?CMP=share_btn_url

I do wonder whether tRump has managed to get all the foil off his FIFI Peace medal, before he ate the chocolate.....

Maybe you should send a stern letter to BOM?

I think what we need in a balance mix of large scale renewables (solar/Wind/pumped hydro) large scale battery storage which includes pumped water, rooftop solar and home batteries, Industry solar & batteries, and neighbourhood batteries for local communities with rooftop solar with no battery. All these are happening to a degree but not fast enough. Government incentives for home batteries is getting a massive response from home owners with rooftop solar & this will inevitably reduce stress on the grid as will neighbourhood batteries & Industry batteries. That is not to say the existing grid is satisfactory, it is not, and growing demand means upgrades and maintenance is even more important. Now there are AI data centres planned that have a huge appetite for energy. There has to be some sort of limitation put on some new large energy consumers or we won't have the capacity in the timeframe it takes for the consumers to come on line. New Coal is simply too expensive and too polluting to even consider, though some idiot politicians think it is still OK. Nuclear is way to expensive to build and takes far too long to be a viable option in the medium 10 to 15 year timeframe, plus we have no experience or expertise. So far at just under 2 weeks since my new solar and battery was installed I have only exported power & used zero grid power even while charging my EV, running A/C & normal household stuff. I also have a fault in one string of panels so they are not producing power at all yet. Total on line is 5.7 kW max of solar.

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.😂

I wouldn't be a politician for the 4 or 5 hundred grand a year they get. Their lives are not their own and they have little time for their families. Taking the family to a sports event when you are the sports minister is OK with me as she has long periods of time away from them. The trip to the UN was an absolute must as Australia is the first in the world to impose a social media ban for under 16s & she championed it and needed to get this across to other nations who are trying to do the same. To me it promotes Australia as being at the forefront of a caring society not at the bottom of the pit like the US where the only thing that matters is the billionaires getting even richer. At their level of importance and the personal sacrifices they have to make plus having to be places at short notice means flying first class is totally justified and what I expect. Like everyone she made the choice to get in to politics but it is unforgiving and brutal. Put any of the armchair warriors who whinge about everything in their position and the tune will change pretty rapidly

Thanks very much for the thoughts , really appreciated. Was just n Centrelink yesterday actually. Anyway , this morng after all this and even being frazzled enough to actually ask here, scanning the net and not sleeping for 2wks, umpteen calls with Clink and their robots that you spend 10mins getting past first before you even get to a human, l got the biggest Christmas present ever , this morning. First port of call was yet another call to robots and clink . Got this lady l shyt you not and l told her this later, she just went click click spent 30mins or so going over everything for about the 10th time with all the others but at the end of it, she fixed it all. And all was a very tricky mess believe me , without the right person it could go on yrs , she was absolutely brilliant said l know l can't have your details but l wanna send you flowers for what you've done here, really. Long and short of it, all is fixed and done thanks to her, l can not believe it , after 2mths of crap all up. Normally drink wine but tell you what, drove down grabbed some beer and we have the best bakery in the whole damn world there too, two gorgeous Hawaiian pies, beer , what more could a man want.

Long ago now I flew interstate or overseas three or four times a week. I refused to fly economy. No one should have to suffer that.

She might be good, but if she's so disconnected to the general population that she thinks taking kids to ski trips and sporting events on the taxpayer dime, when she gets a substantial salary herself, is a good idea, she's either out of touch or greedy.

There are plenty of solar farms that co-exist with cropping or grazing. Modern panels are translucent to a degree so some light gets through to the ground. Sheep are ideal for use in what is known as Agrivoltaics as they graze under standard height panels, remove the need for mechanical or chemical vegetation control, provide shelter for sheep, reduce the fire risk and actually improve the pasture as well as providing an additional source of income.

Fires on farms are not unusual. The source could have been from farm equipment, natural sources, arson or from the solar farm. Let's say it was from the solar farm; this surely only means analysis and actions to make it less likely to happen in the future. Here is a question: Did the incident below make Skynews? No, it did not. This happened a few weeks ago, not far from where I live. There were numerous comments online from conservative folks suggesting that this is a normal process, and sometimes the stack does get smoky for a time. Whether it was normal or not, it did start a grass fire, which required the fire brigade to attend. A grass fire near an oil refinery ought to be big news. There seems to be a discount applied to existing technologies as opposed to newer ones. A petrol or diesel car catches fire, and it is not a big story. An EV catches fire, and it is huge news and has people suggesting that this technology should not exist.

It was a Last Minute decision to go to a very Important meeting . That's why the Airfares cost was HIGH. The sport attendance is less simple. Not sure Chalmers is that happy. The Lib/Nats were More practised at those sorts of things, SUSSan Ley fell foul of it. Not a Good look but getting a big rev up in the news as one would expect. Nev

Yeah that one doesn't pass the sniff test in a cost of living crisis. I think if Albo reads the room he should cut her loose and tell his ministers that just adherence to the letter of the rules is not enough.

Hopefully he thinks it's a suppository.

Using the Contact Us page on their new website

There seems to be some folk in Yew Hess Hay, who seem somewhat disenchanted with the incumbent *resident of the White House. One such kind soul recently suggested their next election preference thus:- "Once again, if a 'Flaming Bag of Dog Poo on my Doorstep, that Someone Left after Ringing my Doorbell and Ran off' is on my ballot, and the only other choice is Trump or some other bullshitter MAGA tool who sees Americans as his enemy, I’ll vote for the bag of shit that doesn’t pretend to be something else." (American eloquence par excellence)

Aww, C'mon Marty - Stop the diplomatic descriptions, and tell us what you really think of Trump.

The Climate Change Debate.... I am pretty sure that there is no debate to be had about Climate Change. It is changing. - That debate is over - Further, it is pretty much universally agreed that anthropogenic climate change is real. - That Debate is over - There seems to still be some relatively minor uncertainty about how much of this climate change is caused by human activity suddenly adding significant amounts of greenhouse gasses. Is that really a debate? The media attention focuses on CO2, mostly from the burning of coal and oils. There is a big fuss over CO2. There is a negative side to that. I think this is distracting the public from noticing the other greenhouse gas emissions and the othe massive global pollution problems. The way I see it, the human animal has evolved to react when an immediate crisis threatens. In the case of the above complex poisoning of our environment, the threat, although ultimately catastrophic, is gradually occuring and seems distant. So we sit at home in a comfy armchair, doomscrolling & watching cat videos.

MRI's use a LOT of electricity. I use an electric toothbrush all the time. Its Great and recommended by My Dentist. I have an electric starter on all my cars and also My wife's Zero Turn Mower. Beware of reaching advanced years and becoming retarded.. and rambling on about all sorts of things. Nev

The AFL are generously giving the project a whole $15m, or around 1%. The taxpayer is providing the other 99%. Putting on my Nostradamus goggles, I predict that the AFL and any other private companies involved will see a return on investment, whereas all losses will be borne by the rest of us.

Those Victorian facilities are for Everyone's eventual Benefit. and are also an Infrastructural Necessity in a fast growing Place Like Melbourne is. Tassie has about the same Population as Geelong But you have to sail or fly to get there, which put's a COST on everyone going there and returning afterwards. Eric ABETZ is the Treasurer, A throw back from the DARK ages if ever there was One. They aren't LISTENING to the People who will be the ones stuck with this decision. The AFL won't come to the rescue.. Nev

There was a comedy series on ABC called "Utopia". One episode in 2014, "We can Build It", used the idea of a football stadium in Tasmania. The crux of the story was that the politicians wanted the stadium, but the advisors actually put up sensible reasons why it would be a White Elephant. The episode was so prophetic that iit should have been screened in the Tasmanian parliament before the vote was taken.

That is also my plan

A lot of counties don't have the sun and wind we have there's also tidal which works every day with the tide going IN OR OUT. When you put steam into the equation it's less efficient and when failure happens it's a sudden Loss of a Large amount and May take ages to fix . It is only efficient at near full output and can't be varied quickly. Brand NEW coal Plant is costly. Carbon Capture and storage is a Myth. Our demand pattern has changed. Most people run airconditioning and have a fair bit of refrigeration. Heating water directly by electricity (Elements) is an expensive way of doing it. Solar by concentration can Produce very HIGH temperatures. That's helpful for specialised processes, yet to be realised. No one can deprive you of solar. Yet. Nev

Nothing other than Bull$#!t. let's Leavitt at that. It's her Job. Nev

Probably because somebody picked it up to have a look at it.

No pit lane?

I have to pull you up on that. There is no equivalence. The facts are that Trump did exhort his insurrectionists to fight and made a heap of inflammatory statements to them. All TV programs cut sections out (imagine the run time if they didn't) but in terms of changing the facts, it didn't. And the BBC, instead of apologising, should have told him to f*ck off. If Sky News and ABC were soccer teams, the ABC is getting a red card for accidentally bumping another player, while Sky News gets it for machine-gunning the opposing team.

I grew up on farm so am aware how good drought proofing is. Solar farms need to be set up to take stock under them as far as guarding around actuators, cable etc. I am just wandering how many developers are actually doing all the time, or just for the farms where the cameras frequent. The windfarm I worked gave all weather access to the top of a ridge, and has allowed fire fighter access. The road across the top also acted as a fire break for a fire caused by a header. We had to stop some turbines and apply the brakes to stop the rotors turning for the air tractors. The smoke from the fire had tripped some of The HV switch gear which meant some were not able to be braked.

Defo not a good look. What happens will depend on her influence in him retaining power

Live stream

We in South Vic are having some near perfect days but don't tell anyone. The grass is growing like Mad. The dam is full. The Ducks are happy. Nev

I would love to hear his first speech, I can just hear it in my head. “ Now we have got rid of that bad mutha f#$ker, let’s get on with it” would be the best opening line ever. i have liked his movies since seeing Pulp Fiction for the first time, he had a guest spot on latest season of Tulsa king which I finished watching last night.

There;s NOTHING NORMAL about TRUMP. Nev

We had a lovely warm sunny day yesterday. Today was gloomy grey and rainy. Tonight is forecast to snow on Mt Wellington (Hobart). I blame BOM. They are doing this to us just to upset us.

Samuel L. Jackson for President!! 🙂

BREAKING: T.r.u.m.p DEMANDS an IQ Test — 13 Seconds Later, Samuel L. Jackson Asks ONE Question That Leaves Him STUMPED!..-thaoo https://todayonus.com/posts/🔥-breaking-t-r-u-m-p-demands-an-iq-test-13-seconds-later-samuel-l-jackson-asks-one-question-that-leaves-him-stumped-thaoo

When Old people give up their seat for You. Nev

How do you know when you are getting old? When the little old lady you help cross the road is your wife.

Did you at least bring home a haunch of venison?

I have reached my advanced years without needing an electric toothbrush, electric shaver or electric car. But I really appreciate my electric chainsaw, hedge trimmer, leaf blower and whipper snipper. Have used them all in the last couple of days, great labour savers and easy to use.

Catering for brief system underutilisation does not equal overcapitalisation. The old capacitor banks are stoll doing their job. Old style mecanical system inertia (to maintain 50 cps system synchronisation) is now being replaced by fast electronic system synchronisation. I know which one is fastest to respond to sudden load changes. Hint:- not the old steam engines!