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People often express disbelief that a gas making up only 0.04% of the atmosphere could have any meaningful impact. Consider ozone (03). Its concentration varies with altitude, peaking between about 15 km and 35 km at just 2–8 parts per million (ppm). By comparison, carbon dioxide (CO₂) sits around 420–425 ppm and is rising by roughly 2.4–2.6 ppm per year. Ozone exists in far smaller concentrations than CO₂, yet its role is critical—without the ozone layer, life on Earth would not survive. Small percentages can still have enormous effects.

It's all Litespeed's fault. He mentioned Abbott on page one, and that was enough to send Nev into his usual rants. DO NOT mention anything other than Ukraine reports in this thread. If you must, start a new topic.

When anyone presents a quote, I always look for its source. I can't find any evidence that this was ever said. 🔎 Where the “2 metres in 10 years” claim comes from There is no verifiable speech, interview, or document where Al Gore says: Sydney Harbour will rise 2 metres in 10 years What does exist is a mix of: 1. 🌊 Misinterpreted statements from An Inconvenient Truth In An Inconvenient Truth, Gore discusses: Potential multi-metre sea level rise But only if major ice sheets collapse And over long timescales (decades to centuries) Some critics later compressed that into “he predicted metres soon”, and then it got shortened again into “2 metres in 10 years”—which is not what he said. 2. 🧩 Blending with other exaggerated or wrong claims Online posts often mix together different claims, for example: “20 feet (≈6 metres)” long-term possibilities General warnings about future flooding Local places like Sydney or New York added in later Over time, these get stitched into a fake quote that sounds specific and outrageous. 3. 📱 Social media meme evolution Fact-checkers have looked at similar Sydney-specific claims and found: Memes often use photos of Sydney Harbour to “prove” no change These ignore tides and proper measurement Long-term data actually shows rising sea levels, not flat or falling Once those memes circulate, people attach a made-up quote to them (like the Gore one) to give them credibility. 4. 📊 Real data contradicts the narrative Sea levels have risen 15–25 cm since 1901 globally Sydney tide gauges show a clear upward trend, not just 2 mm total So the “only 2 mm” part is also misleading—it cherry-picks or misunderstands data. 🧠 What’s really going on here This claim is basically a game of telephone: Real science: “multi-metre rise possible over long timeframes” Simplified: “metres of rise could happen” Distorted: “metres soon” Meme version: “2 metres in 10 years in Sydney” By the end, it sounds like a bold failed prediction—but it was never actually said. ⚖️ Bottom line ❌ No evidence Gore made that 10-year, 2-metre prediction ❌ The Sydney Harbour example is added later, not original ⚠️ The claim is a fabricated quote built from distortions ✅ Actual measurements show gradual, real sea level ris

If you are referring to the whole world, well, they are building more. Globally, pumped hydro has ~200 GW of installed capacity That represents the vast majority (over 90%) of long-duration energy storage Dozens of new projects are still being built each year So while individual schemes are large and relatively few compared to, say, solar farms, they are widespread and globally significant. 📍 Where are they? 🇨🇳 China (world leader) Largest total capacity (~50+ GW) Massive new projects like Fengning (one of the world’s biggest) Hundreds more under construction 👉 China uses pumped hydro heavily to stabilise its huge wind and solar buildout. 🇯🇵 Japan ~20+ GW installed One of the earliest adopters Built to balance nuclear and now renewables 🇺🇸 United States ~16–17 GW installed Famous example: Bath County (often called the “world’s largest battery”) 🇪🇺 Europe (widely distributed) Major countries: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain Example: Germany has multiple plants used for grid balancing Scotland hosts many of the UK’s biggest schemes 🇦🇺 Australia Existing: Shoalhaven scheme (NSW) Tasmanian hydro system Major new build: Snowy 2.0 (huge expansion project) 🌎 Other notable regions South America – Brazil and Chile expanding capacity India – growing fast to support solar Africa – early-stage development (e.g., South Africa) 👍 Are they successful? Short answer: Yes—very successful, but with caveats ✅ Strengths 1. Proven and reliable Technology has been used for 50+ years Extremely well understood and dependable 2. Grid stabilisation Acts like a giant battery: Stores excess power Releases it when needed 3. Long lifespan Often lasts 50–100 years (much longer than batteries) 4. Scale Can store huge amounts of energy (hours to days) ⚠️ Limitations 1. Geography matters Needs suitable elevation and water Not every location works economically 2. High upfront cost Big civil engineering projects (tunnels, dams) 3. Long build times Projects like Snowy 2.0 take years and can face delays 4. Environmental concerns Land use, water impacts, and community opposition 🤔 Big-picture takeaway Pumped hydro is not new or experimental—it’s the backbone of global energy storage. It’s especially valuable as countries add more wind and solar. While batteries are growing fast, pumped hydro still dominates for large-scale, long-duration storage. 🌍 How much is being built? Around 100+ GW of pumped hydro is already under construction globally The total development pipeline is enormous (~600 GW) Annual additions are rising and could double to ~16.5 GW per year by 2030 👉 That’s not a niche build-out—that’s a major global infrastructure push. 📍 Where is the construction happening? 🇨🇳 China (dominates the boom) By far the biggest builder 200+ GW under construction alone Adding multiple large plants every year 👉 China is essentially treating pumped hydro as core grid infrastructure for renewables. 🇮🇳 India & Asia-Pacific Rapid expansion to support solar growth New multi-GW projects announced (e.g. Maharashtra schemes) Strong growth across Asia-Pacific generally 🇪🇺 Europe Lots of medium-sized projects and upgrades Example: New plant in Norway (Illvatn) under construction Hybrid wind + pumped hydro projects (e.g. Crete) 👉 Europe is modernising older hydro + adding storage rather than building mega-dams. 🇺🇸 United States Several projects in development: Example: Seminoe (900 MW) Many more proposed—potential to more than double capacity 🇦🇺 Australia (your backyard) Active pipeline: Kidston (QLD) nearing completion Snowy 2.0 under construction Multiple NSW & QLD proposals ⚠️ But: Some projects have been delayed or cancelled due to cost blowouts or geology issues (e.g. Pioneer-Burdekin) 🌎 Other regions Spain: dozens of projects progressing (25 advancing in 2025 alone) Africa: early but accelerating growth South America: Chile & Brazil expanding 📈 Why the sudden surge? This is the key shift: 👉 Wind and solar are now cheap—but intermittent 👉 Grids need long-duration storage (hours to days) Pumped hydro is: Proven Long-lasting (50–100 years) Scalable to huge sizes That’s why it’s having what’s been described as a “renaissance” in energy systems Reality check (it’s not all smooth) Even though many are being built: ✔ What’s going well Strong government backing Clear role in renewable grids Massive scale possible ✖ What’s slowing things down Long build times (often 7–10 years) Cost overruns (common in big civil projects) Environmental approvals Site-specific risks (geology can kill projects)

Well he didn't impress the Hungarians neither did Just Dumb Vance. The UK & the EU have a collectively larger economy by some margin than the US & Trump has alienated the rest of Nato and pretty much everyone else. The only thing the US has is a bigger military with the biggest most sophisticated weapons and some excellent technology though no better than Europe, China or even Australia. The problem is the country is run by the billionaires with Trump as their figurehead. The US has never been invaded but they are always at war with someone as well as themselves. They haven't invented many things on their own but have exploited most of the inventions from elsewhere, mostly the UK & Europe. The UK & Europe have some very large armament companies but have been happy to play second fiddle while the US has provided most of the defence hardware. Not any more. The invasion of Ukraine and Trumps re election has changed everything, The US is an empire in decline, it is already technically bankrupt and Trump is costing the county dearly. I don't know when it will eventually implode but I am sure it will eventually. There are companies that have been deemed to big to fail like GM but there is nothing that will save a country when it all turns to custard/

Interesting.

Had an interesting morning this morning. I was at a funeral recently and bumped into an old mate I hadn't seen for many years. In the time since I last saw him, he's retired and has been making acoustic guitars for a hobby. Today I went around and he showed me a few of the guitars and where he makes them in his shed. He's a carpenter/builder by trade so already had quite a lot of the tools and some of the required woodworking skills. They're nice guitars, mostly all dreadnaughts, and all Australian timbers. He uses a lot of silky oak on the bodies and grey gum for necks and other parts. I seem to remember the Australian brand Maton using Australian timbers.

Managed inverters do contribute to the stability of the grid as it is the inverter that manages the battery and decides when to charge or discharge and whether to import or export. I signed up with Amber a few weeks ago and it has been interesting watching what the software is telling my system to do as it uses algorithms to check the spot price which changes every 5 minutes and how much energy I am using and whether my battery is charging or not and what the current export price is. I had run the EV battery down to 20% with a few longish drives over 3 days & decided to charge it today. I have the car set to charge only between 10am & 2.30pm. By 10 am my battery that was depleted overnight as it exported during the peak time from about 5.30pm & 7pm had regained about 55% of charge. The charger consumes 7kWh & the solar now is generating about 6kWh. In January this would have been 9kWh. So the solar was used to power the charger & the rest of the house & the balance supplemented by the battery. When the battery depleted to 29% the system stopped drawing from it & began importing energy and the solar then was all used for charging the battery. At that time the spot price was 11c/kWh & the export price was -1cent. My charger does not have OCCP (Open Charge Point Protocol) so cannot be managed except manually. I changed the charger via its app to charge at 20 amps when it had been charging at 32 amps. The inverter then stopped importing power and supplied the charger & house & began recharging the battery with the surplus. For the last few days the inverter has used its curtailment function to reduce solar output once the battery is full to prevent export at very low or negative export prices The Amber software is in learning mode for the first 30 days so gets more accurate over time. The Amber App today shows that in the past 18 days I am $31.03 in credit. Ambers charge is a flat $25.00 a month so that is covered. The daily supply charge from Essential Energy of $1.92 has already been included. It will be different as the seasons change and if we get a lot of cloudy weather or rain.

Obviously the fire was started by radical leftist EV owners seeking to overthrow the capitalist system....... or a faulty valve.

Inverters don't contribute to the grid. Batteries help the grid because they smooth out peaks in consumption. There is a huge peak around the time people get home from work and cook dinner. Those people with their own batteries are helping by not contributing to this peak, and those who sell a portion of their stored electricity back to the grid are reducing the need to ramp up power stations or peaker plants. Most of the world is moving in this direction; can they all be wrong?

I like the rest of your post, except for this bit. I think you are not allowing for the rapidly rising number of households that are what you call 'jumping the gun'. My solar and battery do all the smoothing needed for my intermittent solar. It has hardly stopped raining for a fortnight, and my battery dropped down to 80%. That is, nil from the grid in that time. A lot of people (finances permitting) are not waiting for the government to solve the problem.

The real concern is that AI might make the contributors to this forum obsolete.

We are Not in NORMAL circumstances and it could get worse. Imagine the Hullabaloo if that Happened. Perhaps this will get us a bit weaned off fossil fuel where we can be Held to ransom at the whim and fancy of lots of people and have a cleaner World at the same time. Nev

Yes, I remember stamps with Magyar from my childhood stamp-collecting phase. According to AI: Magyar is a relatively common surname in Hungary, acting as an ethnic name that means "Hungarian". It is frequently found across the country, particularly in regions with mixed historical ethnicity. As a surname, it is sometimes the result of historical "Magyarization," where families changed foreign-sounding names to more patriotic ones. Key Facts About the Name "Magyar" Meaning: The word magyar is the autonym for Hungarians and means "Hungarian". Origin: The name stems from the ancient Megyer tribe, which was a dominant clan among the Hungarian tribes in the 9th century. Commonality: It is a common surname in Hungary. Related Names: Similar to other ethnic surnames in Hungary, such as Horváth (Croat) or Német (German). Distribution: Data shows high concentrations of individuals with the surname Magyar in areas like Budapest and regional centers such as Hajdúszoboszló and Kecskemét. While it means "Hungarian," it is important to note that the country itself is called Magyarország (literally "Land of the Magyars") by its inhabitants.

This one has been seen before, but worth a rerun.

I was going through some old images on a hard drive, and on today of all days, I came across this.

Claude.io from Anthropic is considered the bee's knees for coind. They have just released Mythos, it's next gen.. except they haven't released it to the general public. Apparently, without specific training, it identified zero day and other vulnerabilities. It is claimed to exceed the capability of all but the best developers: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/04/08/what-is-claude-mythos-and-why-anthropic-wont-let-anyone-use-it/ The software development industry is already being turned on its head. I used claude.io to quickly develop a prototype app that is fully industrlalised (i.e. uses all the correct data, application, user iunterface, security, distributed, and scaling techniques, complete with application and server health monitoring and the like). On the free version, it took my about two months because they have much stricter usage limits than ChapGpt. But, it was exceptionally well written code - and I didn't have to tell it what technoogy to use.. I basically said this is what I need, and it did the rest. Many companies are turning to AI.. a lot of Intergrated Development Environments (IDE's), which are th programs where you write code, debug, ibuild, etc, have AI already integrated. However, Claude is next level stuff already. Mythos basically will make the software development industry almost entirely automated. We are currently hiring a lot of software developers for a big new program of work - it is huge. I won't go into numbers, but from about September/October last year, I have increased my analysts fby a factor of 10. We have been hirign developers (we already have a reasonable number) - looking quadruple our developer count. Despite it being a buyers market, we are finding ti tough to find quality candidates and we are paying decent rates for London. So, I will be proposing to our AI team adopting an AI dev tool for our project. We have to deliver a shed load in a year, which is why we are looking to hire an army of people. But, for literally a few hundre dollars per user per month, we can get exceptional throughput. And here's the interesting thing: It can write the code and a separate AI bot will review the code and suggest improvements. If they are accepted, the improvements are fed back intoi the code writing bot as well. So, what does this do to the industry? It doesn't kill it entirely... The first thing I predict will be a virtual removal of programming languages.. Of you think about it, programming was originally writing a bunch of 1's and 0's in a specific way and took an eternity. And then, Assembler/Assembly (depending on which side of the tracks you were born) was developed as a human readable extraction of the CPU instructions. You had to learn Assmbler for each processor family (and sometimes individual chips). That saved a lot of time compared to the binary coding and the instruction set was somewhat standardised for standard operations. This is effectively a second generation language. Then came 3GLs - these were BASIC. fortran, COBOL, C, and these days Java, C#, Python and the like. They are general purpose langiages that are feature rich and provide a programmer all of the control needed, but the difference is that the language applied to any computer (wlell, almost).. as a compiler or interpreter to convert that code to binary code (executable code). So, in theory, if I wrote a COBOL program on an IBM Mainframe, it would compile and run on a PC with a COBOL compiler. The truth is there are extensions and platform specific functions. Although, Java, C# and Python have fixed that by being interpretative, and the use standard library extensions. 4GLs made a relatively brief appearance, in that they were higher level 3GLs - an attempt to make programming more English like and democratise development to the users. Ironically, langiages like Python, which are modern 3GLs have done more for that than the 4GLs. There are 5GLs, but they are largely obscure. But AI - especially such as Claude will, IMHO, replace computer languages as we know it. They will become English (or other human language) builders. At the moment, they are code generators.. I asked Claude to develop my app using Java and specific frameworks (though it suggested some better ones than I requested, so I went with its suggestion). When it did create a bug, a quick prompt fixed it. The article above talks about usign humans for reviewing the code, but I would suggest once there is critical mass of confidence in the technology, code will no longer be required. For example, you have your series of prompts to build an application. Claude (or other AIs) can generate the executable (or interpretive bytcode, a sort of executable) direct - no production of human readable code required. It will be tested and if it works, it can be deployed; if not, adjust the prompt, rebuild and retest. Back to my team; about 1/2 of my analysts are ex developers/software engineers - like myself. We have very good business domain knowledge and reasonably good, if outdated software development knowledge. My idea is that we are given a system architecutre (data lake, data frameworks, service platform, user interface platforms - e.g. desktop, tablet, phone), asd we start crafting the prompts to build the system. The first will be the data model, of which there are industry standards we can tweak. I would suggest we will have the data model done, say, in two days. We can use AI to populate the database and then write tests to ensure it works property. Say 2 - 3 days. Within 5 days I can have something that would take as maybe a month to get what we think is right and would probably take 2 analysts and some database admin support. The I can start building the individual functional services asnd UI, as well as integration to other systems. Let's say 2 months to build, system test, performance test, and have the users acceptance test it. The it is a deploy to the production environment. In fact, we could easily automate the testing, as well as for updates, any regression testing. Say add 2 months, maybe with a lead tester/QA person, an architect part time, a senior dev part time to review stuff, and maybe a database administrator part time. Otyherwise we would use analysts - probably between 3 and 5 because of the number of functions we have to deliver. And the best thing is, even if it produces spaghetti code (which it doesn't), I don't care, because what is important to me is the promtps that build the system. And you don't need to be a linguist or an expert in the coding or the specific language, database, user interface technology to use it. In fact, in my little home experiment, Clause inferred much of what it had to do without me needing to even hont at it. As I said, I can't give you exact numbers, but our non-AI plans are close to 100 people all up, with a minimum viable product at about a year, and then the full enchilada in two years.. and there will still be kinks to iron out, performance issues, regressions in releases, etc. But with maybe 5 analysts and a smattering of other support, I cam have the whole enchilada within 6 months. Now work out the man days. In the UK, there are about 220 working days for professionals.. 100-ish people * 220 days * 2 years = 44,000 working days. And my business has a cost of using manual processes and elevated operational controls from day 1, but reducing as more is delivered over a two year period. Now I have, say all my staff in an AI world on it full time (which I doubt, but let's go with it) = 110 days * 9 (5 analysts, 1 developer, 1 QA, 1 DBA, 1 Architect): 990 days. Assume $1000/Day per person. Without AI, $44m; With AI: $990,000. Assume $500/mo per user (that is what a company a friend of mine is paying Anthropic for Claude): $27,000 gives a total with AI of $1,017,000. Even if I am really, really optimistic, and we quadruple the estimates, that is $4,068,000, noit quite 10% of the costs of doing it the old way. It is going to be a bumpy ride, but in theory, all services should get cheaper once widespread AI adoption kicks in.

Agent Provocateur Litespeed at your service. Clandestine operations by appointment.

I don't think trump gives a flying fark about the damage he does to Japan, Australia, Malaysia, etc. Nor about the wellbeing of American citizens.

Meanwhile, back in Ukraine.... "Ukrainian forces have successfully taken control of a Russian position using only drones and ground-based robotic systems." Wars are getting ironically impersonal. Or is that non personnel? https://united24media.com/latest-news/for-the-first-time-ukrainian-unmanned-systems-capture-russian-position-without-infantry-or-losses-17874

Trumper Backed him also. A great Day for Hungary and it's People. Nev

Is the wind changing? BBC news:- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has conceded defeat after 16 years in power, with the opposition securing a landslide election win Mr pootin won't be pleased.

I might self exclude myself from the news again in the mornings. When I didn't turn it on I felt better. It might be a bit of an ostrich move (head in the sand) but it is always someone else's misery that gets reported. No wonder so many people are depressed.

Yes, and no. Our behaviour really stems from the fact that humans are the result of evolution, not intelligent design. We collectively refuse to accept that we are animals governed by survival instinct which is fine tuned to respond to short term threats to our existence. We struggle to respond to any long term threat. Our brain just can't do it. This fact is the biggest single threat to humanity.

@Grumpy Old Nasho - you really need to stay away from TV.. It is mainly American fed BS that doesn't even apply in their legal systems. War crimes are covered under the Crimes Act (Commonwwealth), making it a federal office; not a state offence. It is an indictable (serious) offence. However, there is no federal criminal court, the court of the first instance will be the supreme court of whichever state he is in, which is NSW. Under NSW law, all indictable offences require a trial by jury, except where, in the court's opinion, there is so much publicity that would impact almost anyone from being unbiased and potentially predisposed to a guilty verdict. But, this does not apply to federal offences thanks to s.80 (I think) of the Aussie constitrution, that requires all commonwealth (fedral) indictable offences to be tried by jury. The Bondi gunmen are also to be tried in the NSW Supreme Court in the first instance. In both cased, the defence may (and will likely) petition the court that a trial by jury would be prejudicial to the defence. If both succeed, then the outcome will be different for both defendants. Roberts-Smith will walk free. As the court will deem he cannot be granted a fair trial by jury, and the Aussie constitution requires those charged with a federal indictable offence are tied by jury, the court has no choice. It's as simple as that. Of course, the prosecution will appeal it, but if the decision is upheld, Robert Smith is a free man. In the case of the Bondi Gunman, there are 59 offences including murder, attempted murder, terrorism, firearms, etc. For the NSW state offences (murder, attempted murder , some of the firearms offences, some of the terrorism offences), he will still be tried - but by a judge only or a number of judges. He does not automatically walk free. If the defence do not agree, he will still be tried by jury. Unlike Roberts-Smith, he has no "get out of jail" card, if you will excuse the pun. But there's more.. the procedure is slightly different, especially where the judge has to give reasons for finding of fact (where a jury doesn't), It is hard to quantify, but because it holds the judge to a higher level of scrutiny, is is argued tha ut us harder to get a convuiction because they judge requires more to eliminate reasonable doubt (standard of proof the prosecution must provide) and less to introduce doubt on the balance of probabilities (standard of proof required by the defence). Every new editor (TV, magazine, radio, etc) in the country knows this. So, your theory that all the hype with Roberts Smith and the relatively low coverage of the Bondi Gunman is to lynch Roberts-Smith is so far from reality, it beggars belief. It is in Roberts-Smith best interests that there is as much bombastic coverage showing him as guilty as possible. With every press story that can predispose people to an opinion, the defence case stengthens that he can walk away a free man. Similarly for the Bondi Gunman, as if the defence will have less to do to introduce reasonable doubt (not that that will happen) or intorduce a defence (e.g. mental impairment - still slim but probably he only one he has got form what I saw as provication has to be proximate). By the press not covering it obsessively, they are prroviding less than they could to the defence to give them their best short at walking away. But, if you want to reverse the situation and have all the coverage on the Bondi person and none or less on Roberts-Smith, then you are virtually guaranteeing he will be tried, and possibly allowing enough of a sliver of hope the Bonid gunman can rely of some defence (though I doubt it, because criminal mental impariment is a much narrower definition than clincial definitions).

Trump has signed an executive order that bone spurs are inherited in his family only.

We coulld stop selling canola overseas and turn it into bio-diesel.

There's Phase Balancing considerations also Lot's of Lost efficiency Possible there.. We have only just begun this Journey . Remember we used to have Horses and Carts or walk and only the very Rich had Cars . Now they are regarded as essential. Nev

China is Probably doing the Sensible and Responsible thing more effectively than Most. Rent seekers in Corrupted Capitalist Places put a Brake on it to maintain their Profits They don't want competition which is what makes capitalism efficient and keeps costs down. Nev

Midsomer.

Not at my place. Therfe was more moisture on a dead dingo's donger than came from the sky.

More.. I have been saying for some time, the hardware technology has now advanced enough that AI has reached a critical point where it is able to stat to acheive its potential. And that is almost absolute automation. It isn't just coding, by the way.. much of the white collar work will be displaced. Think about these professions: Accountancy Psychology Actuary/quantitative analysts (finance, insurance, etc) Traders, risk managers, settlements staff, compliance staff, etc. Sales Customer Support Real Estate Agents Copywriters, editors, even journalists to some extent Engineers, producte designers, etc. Architects Even scammers and hackers and other crimonals.. and of course, lawyers Health professionals The list goes on. A lot of their work will be replaced with AI as it has the analytical capability to do a lot of the work done by these profressions now. Of course, AI at this stage can't generally have those lightbulb moments as it relies on various probability models of observed data, so sitting on a bus looking at a clock and thinking !hmm, if this bus was doing the speed of light.. what would happen!, but what it can probabl do is automate a lot of the grunt work to get from that to the actual theory. If the reports of Anthropic Mythos are true, though, it may well be a step in that direction, too. What it means for the workforce: Mass displacement Anything that requires human dexterity at this point will still be in demand - I am not sure robotics has yet hit the scale necessary to be able to replace humans in these areas. So tradies, fine arts in painting (not printing), sculpture, etc will remain, labourers, hospitality, etc). Research - as AI can support, but still not theorise in the same way as humans, there will still be research. Management - probably executive only, but apparently Meta did some experiment with an AI version if Zuckerberg and employees couldn't tell. Small workforce driving the AI output. For example, in my area, we would need only a handful of senior people who know how to drive AI who would also be business domain experts and techncally savvy. The will need to be entrepreneurial, too, as they will be looking to drive innovation and an edge against their competitors. And with AI, you can do that very quickly. Will move from th gig economy to the side hustle economy. So, the theoretical $40m saving will: Initially, as Marrty states, go to the bottom line (hopefully I will get some of that if I can make it happen). But this is only inertia However, as more and more companies adopt, and as AI reduces the barriers of entry, competition will eventually take hold. Say, all banks use AI and have reduced their cost massively, we will go for market share and customers to grow our business. That will inevitably lead to lower margins until there is a normalisation of prices and returns. In theory, this will happen over time to all indistrues that use it. The cost of living in theory goes down.. but... There will be less money in the bulk of the population to afford a lot of this anyway. Eventually, as the governments see the issues arising (they are generally hopeless at foresight or at least hopeless on acting on it), they will have to address a burgeoning unemployment situation (country specific), lest there be civil war. This will mean even governments that don't like to step in will have to to redistribute the concentration of wealth as a result. In theory, you shoud get a better product, but it will be in the hands of those that control products. And as we saw with customer relationship management solutions, which had the potential to really improve the customer experience and reduce costs, management colelctively decided to use it to cut costs by offshoring and compounnd the shippy customer experience. Depending on where you are and the geopolitics of the time, will depend on how well a particular society handles the onslaught of change for the majority of the people. But there are a few things to think about from a sociological perspective: Psychological impact: With more time on peoples' hands and very large changes to societal structures in a short period of time, what will be the impact on the individuals and the community. We see our worth in our work, we need to be occupied, etc. What impact will there be of being able to sit around and do nothing? How much of th ecommunity will fall into chronic and sever mental illness - anxiety, depresseion, and worse? What will be be doing to avoid this sort of thing on a bigger scale than we already habve today? Education: No longer will our current education system and approach be relevant. Of course, we need to know the three Rs, but a much bigger emphasis will have to be on critical thinking (pollies don't generally like that), entreprenuership, and the like. Naturally, traditional subjects will remain as we will still need the professionals, trades, etc. Just a lot less of them. What to do with the rest of the population - the worker bees or ants, so to speak? Health: Will we have to start mandating some sort of physical and mental health management/exercise. What gets people out of bed today won't exist tomorrow and it is not apparent what will replace it for the vast majority tomorrow. Those old vids of China and I think Germany where people were mandated to attend mass physical exercise classes may well be needed going forward. Living wage: With so many people potentially being displaced, there are two options - one, a virtual collapse of the economy as the crticial mass can't afford anything so all this automation will yield nothing; or as I mentioned earlier, redistirbution of income to keep the economy and poeople going. Does everyone get a living wage - enough to put a roof over their head, food in the stomach, utilities paid, and some left over to spend money and keep the economy going. Econimics is always a law of diminishing returns, so is this the point that heralds the implosion of capitalism and necessity of socialism (which is not communism)? Do we have to rethink the term dole bludgers? Intensified migration and culture change: We are already seeing virtual collapses in birth rates amongst developed countries. Part of it is the cost of upbringing, but my guess is that it is more around the fact that many couples want a blend of preserving living standards and being able to lavish more on fewer kids than having to spread the same across more kids. And, wit mortalisty rates so low, you don't have to have 10 kids in the hope that two or three make it. More families are happy with 1 child than three; I was very happy with just the one for that very reason. With AI, where it is either harder to have kids because you can't afford it, or it is easy noit to have kids because of a living wage to everyone, in order to keep the economy going, you will still have to have people to give the money to, in order to spend it, in order to generate the economy. Third world will be behind the curve and looking for the juicy lifestyle this can bring.. or just free of their oppressive regimes. That can mean only one thing.. There will be no room for anti-immigration. You need someone to wipe your posterior in old age, it ain't gonna be a born and bred person. Wuth intensified migration, expect culture change. Military: I don't need to go into that.. we should all be able to see what will happen there. But let's not pretend it will be robots against robots.. It will be people using robots (drones, etc) against people who try to deploy robots to defend themselves. Once the barriers are broken, there will be carnage far quicker than Iran's protest suppression until a surrendr (if one is even listened to). There are other areas to consider, but the AI revolution (and that is what it is - a revolution) is a great opportunity and a great threat. It frightens me to say it, but we will be far more dependent on our governments' actions and approach than many other waves of change that have come across society. It will further concentrate wealth and power in a smaller number of corporates. If you don't do what they say, they will cut you off their platforms and lock you out of society. I use the term governments in the plural as it will require a global approach. Sadly,m there are few turly benevolent governments, so we are in for a tough ride.

My cynical suspicion is the same reason that Australian infrastructure always lags behind the needs of the populace. There are no votes in infrastructure that won't be finished before the next election. Combine that with the desperate attempts to avoid the opposition labelling it "overspending", and winning the next election. This applies to highways, railways, public transport, hospitals, power and water. etc, etc. Maybe also, the public has learned to expect that even after all these years of practice, governments still can't write a decent contract that doesn't allow for endless cost blowouts.

So, it has come to pass. Back in 1968, I was an apprentice TIT. One of a hole bunch of TITs. We watched in awe as our instructor held aloft a beautiful object about the size of an A4 page. It was a maze of fine golden wires in a matrix of tiny ferrite toroid rings. "This" he proclaimed, "is a matrix memory. It holds a thousand bits of data for a computer. It was made last year and today is obsolete. At the present rate of development, in a few years we will see computers so smart that they can develop their own programmes!" So I have seen the original Matrix. It took a bit longer for it all to happen, but it has come to pass. OME, never fear, all those redundant coders will soon be free from enslavement.

I didn't realise Kharg Island (red pin) was almost 850 km from the Strait of Hormuz.

Let the People who want to start them do it with Clubs and there wouldn't be any. They are ALL Brave with OTHER Peoples Lives. Some even Make a Lot of Money out of it.. Nev

It's VERY Personal with Putin. Nev

Sounds like a real rave. Check on what is really being done and be thankful. Borneo has plenty of Oil and isn't far away. They are doing something about what others caused.. without any help from the Press or the Opposition who seem to want everything to fail . Nev

I agree with that. He certainly didn't go into it for Netanyahu or Israel. He went into it for himself because he thought the Iranian leadership would fold in a couple of days and he'd be famous as the President who had the nerve to take on the Iranians and show the world how weak his predecessors were. He wanted the world to applaud how smart and amazing he is. All he's managed to do is demonstrate how vain and stupid he is.

Yes, that's excellent news. Trump will be pissed off too which is an added bonus. Orban was strongly supported by both Putin and Trump, so you know he's an arsehole.

Perhaps the reason that teh Bondi Gunman has slipped from the front page is due to a lot of other stuff for the front pages. Things like Iran, fuel, cyclones, and Roberts-Smith are the short term attention grabbers now. Also the Bondi Bomber is awaitng the actual start of the Court appearances. He is currently On Remand.

Our Planet is a delicately balanced Place ideal for us to Live in. Why do we destroy it so readily? Are we so stupid?

The Australian court system is as good or Better than Most and it's NOT the Government 's decision to Prosecute cases, unlike the USA, and plenty of other places you wouldn't want to live in. Nev

The whole family must have legs like roosters. Is that the reason everyone refers to Trump as a "cock"?

Seems reasonable to me. Recruit people who speak the language and understand the culture of those countries the defence forces are likely to engage with

Had some incredible luck today. In my previous post (last post previous page) I said that the appointment with the ENT specialist was on July 3. I decided to take the letter of referral and test results to his office this afternoon. The receptionist was serving another patient and said "Take a seat in the waiting room. I'll be with you in a minute and get some details." There was another patient in the waiting room. His door opened and she was called in. She was out again in 5 minutes. The receptionist came around and said "His next patient is not here yet, you can have a word with him now if you like." I went in and explained my situation. He checked my ears, looked at the test graphs and told me a few things to do before my scheduled appointment. Then the receptionist collected information like my pension number, medicare number etc., and said she would organise a pre-cochlear test. So effectively, moved things up 3 months. She said "Don't tell your GP. Nobody gets to see him on day 1."

That's ridiculous conspiracy thinking nonsense.

There are now guidelines and rules about deorbit or moving to what's called a graveyard orbit FCC 5-Year Rule: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules requiring satellites licensed by the US—or seeking to access the US market—to deorbit within 5 years of mission completion, a significant reduction from the previous 25-year guideline. Enforcement: In 2023, the FCC took its first enforcement action against a company (DISH) for failure to properly deorbit a satellite (EchoStar-7), demonstrating that these regulations are now being legally enforced. International Guidelines: Agencies like NASA and the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) provide guidelines, often adopting the 25-year maximum rule for LEO, or moving to "graveyard" orbits for satellites in higher orbits. Exceptions and Grandfathering: Existing satellites are often "grandfathered" in, meaning they do not have to comply with newer, stricter rules immediately. However, new missions must include plans for disposal.

Here's the Moon in 1969. I have a set of slides given to me by a photo lab for professional photographers in Sydney CBD. I've kept them all this time and only scanned them in Sep 2024. I can post more If you want to see them, there's 19 all up, different scenes.