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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.

They don't need to anymore. Trump is doing it all by himself.

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.

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.

Iranians have More reason than ever to Hate Americans. Imagine you are Living there Now and being threatened with Obliteration by a Maniac, and His Weirdo hangers on, who have recklessly and Illegally smashed a lot of the essential Infrastructure and Killed innocents. Nev

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.

As you may know, Victoria has gone alone in establishing a treaty with the original inhabitants. Some parts of our administration are paralysed, particularly Parks Victoria which is progressively surrendering control. Here is my own story, not related to Parks Vic. My daughter was partly burnt out by the bushfires in January and has been waiting for her block to be cleared. On the road outside her property is a gum tree which has old steps cut into it. The neighbour told her he cut them himself about 40 years ago. However, the Dja Dja Wurrung have identified it as a sacred tree. Thus, the land around it for a 10m radius is protected. The 10m radius comes one metre into my daughter's block. Contractors cannot enter her property until the property has been "blessed" by the Dja Dja Wurrung. She contacted the council to find out about the delay. They told her that lots of people are suffering the delay because the Dja Dja Wurrung are not doing blessings at present. It is nearly four months since the fire.

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

One of the reasons for granting bail was that it is going to takwe a very long time to bring these charges before a court. There is no likelihood that he will commit further offences whilst free on bail, so community safety is not endangered. The only condition that I see as not being useful is the reporting three times per week to police. That is supposed to restrict his movement from the local area of his residence. As one who was able to set bail conditions, I always felt that this was an onerous condition. Once a week is sufficient if the condition is required.

I don't know of any electricity retailers who only charge a kWh and not a network fee but I am happy to be enlightened. Certainly every retailer I have have looked at charges a network charge. If you have a battery and can supply all of your own power needs but are still connected to the grid as a backup then you are paying your fair share. If you are able to disconnect from the grid then why should you pay for a grid you don't use? If you have a house on tank water you should not have to pay water rates.

I should have made the title Victoria's Secret, because not many people know how serious it is. In a way it will be a good thing, because the other states and the Feds will have a chance to see how a treaty really works. Unfortunately, in my opinion, some of the so-called leaders are just in it for what they can get for themselves and close family. Some have criminal records or are known drug dealers. Some, perhaps many, have a tenuous claim to aboriginality. At present there is a fight to see who comes out in control or with veto rights on public lands. At the same time, as in the greater society, probably 90% are good people wanting to get on with their lives, but they are not the high-profile activists. If you ask me for hard evidence I probably don't have any, just my own experiences and observations and those of people around me.

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

When i moved to my new property I installed a new solar array & a battery. Total cost after subsidies. $11,600.00. I have charged my EV exclusively from the solar supplemented by the battery when solar generation falls below 7kW. I am now a VPP (virtual power plant) & buy & sell energy on the wholesale market. Also for doing this I am getting another $675.00 rebate. The company I am with charges $25.00 a month to manage my system. I was getting 2.7c/kWh & now I get much more as I sell what is in the battery when the price rises during peak demand. The sun is almost gone today & the export price is 19C/kWh so my battery is exporting. This will stop when I begin using power for cooking etc. My battery is usually full by 10am & unless I have the EV charging my solar production is constrained so i don't export at a negative value. The software they have is called Smartshift & it manages the Inverter. I have been a wholesaler for only a few weeks but I am well in credit after paying the monthly fee. My original payback was 5-6 years & now with my EV costing zero to run & the ability to export only when the spot price is hign, that has reduced to 2-3 years

It would be a BIG Mistake to think that Those running IRAN are stupid.. It's clear where the Bulk of the stupidity resides. Nev

Midsomer.

I maintain that we produce a higher grade of bullshit than AI could.

We will sill need a doctor to sew up our wounds and set our bones. We will need teachers to show our children how to read and count. We will need plumbers to clear our blockes drains and sparkies to wire in our fuse boxes. Every new technology displaces those who performed the activity the is displaced. Humanity always finds something new to do that the technology hasn't caught up with. We are not looking at disaster. We are seeing new opportunities.

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.

Engine block is best because it bypasses the cable from negative battery to starter motor.

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

That's because some governments, like Norway, had the foresight to create a sovereign wealth fund and not just give away their resources to mining companies, the way we do

Trump treats competition as the enemy and He's Not smart or educated or likely to Listen to anyone's advice. He's also vindictive and a chronic LIAR who cares not for former Allies and a lot More negatives. 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 think it's time to separate the climate debate from the energy issue. Not to diminish the climate crisis in any way, although the vested interests have been opposing both. Our national food security relies massively on diesel. Since we have little reserve we are vulnerable to foreign sources for our food. Our industry and economy relies massively on the cost of energy. For the first time, thanks to the development of affordable energy alternatives, we are now availing ourselves of energy and transport that is not reliant on international supply. All this cannot happen overnight, & is still unfolding, but I reckon our future looks great.

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.

I think Netanyahu sees Trump as the useful pawn.

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.

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.