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Everyone is jumping up and down about the ISIS brides who want to return to Australia, and how they might be a threat to our security. Yes, there is a risk of that, but has anyone considered the other side? How many are there voluntarily? The Muslim religion has absolutely NO respect for women, and treat them as possessions of the males. The family (males) choose who they marry - girls as young as 9 or 10 get married off to the man chosen by the family. They do as they are told...or else! They must be covered from head to foot, including their face, lest they arouse the lust of males. They go where and when they are told. How many of them chose to travel to the Muslim countries with their "husbands", or were forced to? They have seen how bad things are over there and want better for their children, and want to bring them back to Australia. But everyone wants to throw up barricades to keep them out. Surely temporary visas would allow them to come back to be assessed, and thrown out if they don't conform to our requirements.

NRMA also have a battery on their vehicle to transfer energy to an EV. Battery to battery can be very high speed so it does not take long to get enough charge into the empty EV battery to enable it to get to the nearest charger. using a generator would take hours to get very little energy in the EV unless it was a massive generator capable of 150 kW plus. I don't know of anyone who has run out though. EV owners are good planners, partly because the public charging network has not kept up with EV sales. Also because the cars software knows the range and can list all the chargers within range. State & federal governments are now putting a fair bit of effort into improving the number of chargers particularly in regional areas. There are plenty in large centres and along major highways. Installing chargers is a lot easier than building a petrol station & once built at huge cost it has to be supplied with fuel. Portable units are being installed in the outback. They have a large battery and solar panels & get delivered on the back of a truck. Several companies are supplying these to Outback farms etc. Larger ones have a small solar farm & big batteries to supply several vehicles at once. NRMA have one in the NT somewhere with 4 chargers. Public EV charging is only in its infancy & some of the early ones were very unreliable. Not so now & there are plenty that are capable of 350 kW way more than almost all EVs can receive. I am off on a 350km round trip tomorrow. The battery is fully charged (free from my solar system) & I won't need to top up anywhere. If I did though there are heaps of charging options. I just hit the go to button & the Satnav guides me to the neared public charger & lists all within range. Simples.

-I met a traveller from an antique land, -Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone -Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, -Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, -And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, -Tell that its sculptor well those passions read -Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, -The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; -And on the pedestal, these words appear: -“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; -Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!" -Nothing beside remains. Round the decay -Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare -The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Shelly, circa 1800's)

One for the fishermen amongst us.....

You know that old thought exercise about which famous people, alive or dead, you'd invite to you ultimate dinner party? People choose Einstein, Jesus, Confucius, Plato etc. I'd choose Trump, Vance, Hegseth, Putin, and Netanyahu. Catering by Erin Patterson.

Everyone goes on about rising CO2 levels in the atmoshere. But rising compared to what? How does science determine a base value for comparison. There must be some way to determine exactly what "fresh air" is. Just south of the isolated north-west tip (Woolnorth Point) of Tasmania, at a place called Cape Grim, the Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) fund and operates the Cape Grim atmospheric observational facility. The Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station first began measuring the composition of the atmosphere in April 1976 and has been in continuous operation since that date. The air sampled arrives at Cape Grim after long trajectories over the Southern Ocean, under conditions described as ‘baseline’. This baseline air is representative of a large area of the Southern Hemisphere, unaffected by regional pollution sources. Air samples are analysed at the station to determine concentrations of greenhouse and ozone-depleting gases, other air pollutants, including aerosols and reactive gases, and radon. Since sampling began at Cape Grim, more that 3 billion measurements have been taken. Among these are measurements of greenhouse gases (GHGs), including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and synthetic GHGs such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). The number of atmospheric greenhouse gases measured at Cape Grim now exceeds 50, as well as concentrations of natural and anthropogenic aerosols (particles such as sea salt, mineral dust, carbon particles etc). Some of the air samples collected at Cape Grim have been archived for further analyses as required. This picture shows some of the samples stored in "fresh air archives". Because we have these measurements and samples going back 50 years, we are in the position of being able to say that the atmoshere has changed over that time. Happily, all is not doom and gloom. The growth of some GHGs (for example methane) has slowed recently and some are in decline (CFCs and halons for example). Read more here: https://capegrim.csiro.au/

GON - There's a classic old phrase, "a Pyrrhic victory". The saying comes from King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who defeated the Romans at Asculum in 279AD. But it was at horrendous cost to Pyrrhus and his powerful tribe, and the King was quoted as saying after the battle - "If we have another victory like this, we'll be ruined". The Americans, led by Trump, have just expended vast amounts of their high-tech war arsenal, had nearly all their Middle Eastern defence sites destroyed or damaged to the tune of multiple billions, lost billions in military aircraft losses, in Trumps attacks against Iran - and he has achieved very little, except to create an even more bitter and hardline enemy than he had before. This is simply due to Trumps lack of leadership ability, his lack of war strategy, his failure to consult his allies - who has constantly abused and denigrated since he came to office - and his failure to topple any of the hardline Islamic leadership in the country. This Islamic power bloc has 150,000 Revolutionary Guard troops, who are still largely intact as a resisting power force. Australia doesn't need an ally such as the America led by Trump, because he fails to treat any ally with respect, he fails to consult allies when he takes warlike action, and fails to produce a cohesive strategy for actually winning a war against Islamic hardliners. He always wants to go it alone as a King-like leader, but he fails to understand even the basics of military strategies, and the fact remains that America now always loses every war it ventures into, because it has no plan to deal with the aftermath of any warlike action. The full cost of this warlike action against Iran is yet to be felt by Americans and the American economy - but when it does, it's going to become another nail in the American coffin.

But in answer to your question - I would start a foundation with very smart and trustworthy people at the top, with the remit to determine the underlying causes of the most urgent problems affecting people - climate change, inequality, poverty, access to health care / education / justice / clean water / food etc, and the most effective way of lessening those problems. Every billionaire out there could give 99% of their wealth to endeavours like this and still live very comfortable lives. The fact that they don't speaks volumes about their character.

Anybody intersted in talking about EVs?

A Society divided unto itself shall surely fall. Trump thrives on division. Nev

Here is just one of the mistruths from a formal complaint that is being lodged about the Channel 7 story. 3.4 Environmental Misinformation (Koala Treatment) Broadcast Claim: The program alleged that wind farm clearing involves euthanising koalas with “blunt force instruments” [4]. Verified Fact: The Clean Energy Council (CEC) has confirmed this practice has never occurred in any Australian renewable project [1]. Its inclusion in a prime-time broadcast without evidence constitutes a failure to present factual material accurately under Section 3.3.1. Yes, they are claiming with no evidence that koals are being beaten to death in order to build wind farms. This comes from a viral claim several years ago and has no evidence. What astonishing overreach. I am confident that they know this to be untrue, but know a small number of viewers will believe this claim. According to AI In Australia are koalas killed to build windfarms Short answer: No—koalas are not routinely killed “to build wind farms” in Australia. But like any land development, there can be impacts on habitat, and that’s where most of the real issue sits. Here’s the clearer picture: 1) The viral claim about killing koalas You might have seen claims that koalas are being “clubbed” or deliberately killed for wind farms. These have been widely circulated in politics and media, but: A fact check found no evidence of koalas being killed during construction of a major wind farm (Clarke Creek). Companies involved said they use wildlife spotters and strict “zero harm” policies to avoid injury to animals. Claims about workers killing koalas were publicly repeated but later debunked or unsupported. So the idea of routine or intentional killing specifically for wind farms is misleading. 2) What does happen in reality The real issue is more mundane (and still important): Wind farms (like any big project) may require clearing land, which can remove koala habitat. Environmental laws require: surveys before clearing relocating animals where possible minimising harm Developers often pause work if wildlife is present and bring in ecologists. 3) How big is the impact compared to other threats? This is where context matters: Since 2012, mining has cleared far more koala habitat than renewables. Agriculture (like land clearing for grazing) is even larger again. Scientists consistently say the biggest long-term threat to koalas is habitat loss and climate change, not wind farms. 4) Important nuance There are legitimate concerns about renewable projects being built in sensitive habitats. Some proposals have been criticised or modified because of risks to koalas and other species. But that’s about where projects are built, not deliberate killing. Bottom line ❌ Koalas are not being systematically killed to build wind farms ⚠️ Some habitat can be cleared, which affects them ✅ The bigger threats are land clearing (especially agriculture), mining, and climate change If you want, I can break down one of the specific controversies (like Clarke Creek) so you can see exactly how these claims started and what’s actually in the documents.

Nobody gets it right 100% of the time, but the ABC are head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to accuracy.

I watched this program on the ABC & could not believe the stupidity of the reporter. He borrowed an EV & knew nothing about the cars capability. If he did he'd know that the satnav will tell him all of the chargers within range & guide him to one. You cannot fill a petrol car in 2 minutes & pay for the fuel etc. He should have already downloaded the apps before leaving. He was at an Evie 350kW charger & if he already had the app & registered the vehicle as most people do, all you do is plug the charger cable in to the car, it charges, you then click stop remove the cable & drive away. You are automatically charged & details are stored in the app. Everything Sam Evans said is spot on. I felt like complaining but then thought why bother. Anyone with half a brain & an interest in going Electric will make their own mind up. I did & it was the best car purchase decision i have ever made. My fuel cost is zero as I charge from my solar panels. When going long distance I check the location of chargers on route & know the range. The car has a longer range than my bladder so when I need to charge I take a break & have a bite to eat. If it is down to 20% charge 20 minutes later it is at 80%. This is usually quicker than than I am. Often I will go & unplug & move the car so someone else can use the charger. It is coming up to 3 years & 45,000 km since I bought my MG4. First service in 2 years & nothing had to be done except update the software. The only downside is that the new facelift model is now 10k less than I paid but now EVs are no longer an expensive way to get in to a new car with the latest small models cheaper than their petrol equivalents.

The mothers may have been under the same duress as the Iranian Women's Soccer Team who wanted asylum in Australia, with threats to their family in Iran. They may have had no say in who they married, the Muslim religion treats women worse than dogs. 9 year old girls are forced to marry. The mothers did not want that sort of treatment for their children. Bringing them here gives the kids a chance to grow up as caring compassionate human beings.

No need to squabble guys. Every tech answer has an application. Diversity of energy sources is like an insurance policy against one source stopping. Specifically relating to Energy, reducing the pollution caused by any industry, is a benefit to all humanity. We should wean ourselves off the fossil fuel industry because burning it causes many kinds of pollution. Sooner the better, as long as we do it progressively. And EV's are a great step in the right direction.

Random government thought......... At some point in the future there will be a need to reward a person who tells the truth. A No Bull Prize.

Aren't they called ESV's - Emotional Support Vehicles?

Have you got a NEW Cause Celebre, Mark? You can get artificial Spray on Mud for those Toorak Tractors. Enhance your MANLY Image (and that of your Wife ) when she takes little Johnie to Private school. each day. The whole 1-2 Kms that doesn't even get the engine Warm. Nev

What I can't understand is why people drive those kinds of vehicle around the suburban area. They take up 1.5 car parking spaces, and anyone in a medium sized sedan parked beside them can't see past them when exiting their parking space.

This presupposes that we are the only country attempting to cut CO2. Yes, our share is small, but all of the countries that contribute under 2% make cuts adds up to 30% (I am happy to back that figure up) How are these actions abhorrent? When you say you don't accept the science, are you saying that CSIRO is incompetent or part of the malicious conspiracy that you alluded to? I approach climate science like any other area. I have had people tell me that vaccination doesn't work or causes autism, etc. I reject this because I can see what CSIRO says. Being extra cautious, I can cross-check this with other respected sources. This seems to me to be a solid method of determining what the likely "truth" is. If you believe this is a flawed method, then suggest a better method. If the outliers in climate science are right, then why not the outliers in medical science or any other field? Vaccine sceptics also tend to cite "grand conspiracies."

When you run a diesel out it of fuel it will get air in the system will have to be Bled properly. Sometimes even changing a fuel filter has to be done by a competent person with the right equipment. Contaminated Fuel with water can cost thousands of dollars. None of this with EV's No turbos , No EGR Valves. No air cleaners No Mufflers to rot out. No need to warm the engine or watch it on a hot day. No starter Motor, gearbox or clutch to wear. Reduced Brake wear. Servicing reduced to tyres and windscreen wiper Blades. No fumes No tuning. . Dramatic revolutionary change. Nev

Run a Diesel to empty and you don't just fill it and drive away either. Same if you get contaminated fuel. The Longer you delve into electric the BETTER it Looks, Independence from war causing Oil and It's greedy Price and supply manipulators.. The Modern ICE Piston engines are remarkable but Now becoming an obsolete technology. Time to move on in your conceptions of it. It will continue to be even better as engines did in their day. Nev

The USA has been on Israel's side since Day-1 if the State of Israel. At the birth of the State of Israel, the Middle East was territory overseen by the British and French under United Nations mandates. The USA shouldn't have had anything to do with things there.

To the extremely rich, it is Just a Game. Death is the final Leveller, You can't take it with you . Others will try to steal it from you. Your Health is much more important than Money .Nev

Post here or in the AI thread? An enjoyable use of AI to make a cute video.

How's this one for an example Nev. I'm only about 77kg but can't shake the belly fat no matter what I do. While not huge, it's not ideal either. I don't drink alcohol, the only animal protein I eat is seafood, don't have dairy products, gluten, sugar or any sugary foods or drinks. I eat almost no processed, packaged food and never eat junk food. Diet consists mainly of grains, fruit and vegetables. I get quite a bit of exercise for someone my age, partly targeted, the rest from physical work. Every day I do heaps of gut related exercise, sit ups etc., yet still maintain belly fat. There hardly any fat on my body, just around the midriff. There's nothing left to cut out of my diet, zero saturated fat and zero sugar, only the natural sugar found in fruit. There's a lot of people around like that who have the same issue. Also too many who eat all that stuff you listed.

A coal power plant may last 50 years, but during that time, it would undergo maintenance and upgrades. Private banks and investors are unwilling to finance new coal. The long payback means that even if it were viable now, the risk is that somewhere down the line it may become unviable due to advancing technologies. There is no law in Australia that prevents building new coal; there is simply no good business case. You keep talking about "intermittent power" without considering energy storage. Battery efficiency and cost fall every year. A builder of a coal plant that is burning coal whether it is generating at all, is competing with ever cheaper and more efficient battery storage. It is not just chemical energy storage. Underground Air Batteries — The Energy Storage You’ve Never Heard Of Generating electricity with renewables is extremely cheap; this is undeniable. However, the challenge is both long and short-duration storage. Batteries are being built at an astonishing rate, and there are other promising methods in the pipeline. An investor in coal would need to know that they could never be undercut during the payback time of the plant.

You’re assuming prices are high because we’re adding renewables, but that skips the key comparison—what would be cheaper instead? New coal isn’t being built anywhere in Australia because it’s not economically competitive. If it were cheaper, companies would be investing in it—but they’re not. Nuclear might be reliable, but in Australia it would take 10–15+ years and cost significantly more than renewables. That doesn’t solve current prices. A big driver of recent price spikes has actually been coal plant outages and high fossil fuel prices, not renewables. That’s been highlighted repeatedly by Australian Energy Market Operator. The idea that coal is still reliably holding the system together is outdated. Plants like Eraring Power Station are ageing, breaking down more often, and becoming expensive to maintain—that’s not ideology, it’s physics and economics. You’re right that redundancy is needed—but that applies to any system. The difference is that renewables + storage are currently the cheapest way to build that redundancy at scale. So the issue isn’t that renewables are making power expensive—it’s that we’re replacing an ageing, increasingly unreliable system, and that was always going to come with costs no matter what technology we chose.

Unfortunately, due to the mesh that is global economics, if the USA collapses, then so does the global economy. Don't know about the civic-minded bit, but the rest sure describes China. I really wonder if it is the goal of China to implant its form of communism on the rest of the world. I don't think so. I think China is happy with economic dominance. It has fought economic fire with economic fire.

Nope. That's a balanced news organisation which actually fact checks.

I am reading a book about the WW2 Burma campaign. The US 111 Brigade retreated from Blackpool to Indawgyi Lake and couldn’t take the badly wounded. They were all shot to save them from falling into Japanese hands.

IF they were Dumped there, Ford's project would be dead in the water. They Know what they are up against. Trump should spend a week or 2 in CHINA. to open his eyes. Nev

It is not surprising that Ford are pursuing the EV pathway. Their earlier efforts were not that flash but the CEO Jim Farley went to China and airlifted a Xaiomi SU7 EV home which he uses as his daily drive. AI Overview Ford CEO Jim Farley has heavily praised and personally driven a Chinese-made electric car—the Xiaomi SU7—for over six months, describing it as a superior product and a "game changer". While calling it a "shocker" that Chinese EVs are ahead of Western rivals in efficiency and software, he is focusing on keeping them out of the U.S. market to protect domestic manufacturing. Key Takeaways Regarding Ford & Electric Cars: 1. The Daily Driver: Farley stated he did not want to give up the Chinese Xiaomi SU7, stating on the Fully Charged Podcast that he didn't want to switch to a U.S.-made EV. 2. The Competitive Threat: Farley warned in 2025 and 2026 that Chinese automakers are "completely dominating" with superior products. He called their competition an existential threat on steroids compared to the 1980s Japanese auto boom. 3. Ford's Pivot: To compete, Ford has created a specialized, independent "Skunk Works" team in California tasked with developing a new, lower-cost EV platform to compete with Chinese competitors. 4. Upcoming Focus: Ford is planning a $5 billion investment in EVs, focusing on a new midsize pickup truck. Despite his admiration for the technology, Farley has urged the U.S. government to prevent Chinese carmakers from bringing their vehicles to the U.S. to prevent a massive hit to American, and specifically Michigan, manufacturing jobs.

They have 1,409,000,000 people. We have 28,000,000.

Maybe we should put some of the global warming budget into it. Trains are efficient when you work out the tonnes of freight/ litre of fuel.

That's ironic. Isn't one of their beliefs that governments should have no control over the individual?

Ironically, $600-$700 per week would be sufficient to service a mortgage, if there was a house to purchase.

Trump's 60-day DIY war declaration power has expired. Will Congress kowtow to him, or stand up for the rights of the rest of the World?

Renewables and batteries drive down fossil fuel use despite record electricity demand Here is a short summary of this article. Australia’s latest electricity data shows that renewables and batteries are increasingly meeting demand and displacing fossil fuels, even during periods of extreme heat and record usage. Rooftop solar, wind and large-scale solar all contributed strongly, while batteries helped shift cheap daytime energy into evening peaks—cutting gas use to around 25-year lows. This shift has contributed to lower wholesale electricity prices compared to a year ago. While retail prices don’t fall immediately—because they include network costs, retailer margins and are often locked in through contracts—the trend suggests that continued growth in renewables and storage should put downward pressure on retail electricity prices over time. Now I am expecting someone to say "oh it is the bias ABC" I think it is fair to look at the source of any story. In this case it is the AEMO "Quarterly Energy Dynamics Report Q4 2025" Quarterly Energy Dynamics Q4 2025

We can also go further back by using ice cores. "Continuous ice core records from Antarctica provide direct measurements of atmospheric \(\text{CO}_{2}\) going back 800,000 years. [1, 2] However, specialised, discontinuous ice samples (specifically "blue ice" from the Allan Hills, Antarctica) have enabled scientists to measure \(\text{CO}_{2}\) from air bubbles trapped as far back as 2 million years ago, with experimental studies extending even further. [1, 2, 3]" Two million-year-old ice cores provide first direct observations of an ancient climate

A concern that I have does not involve future terrorist activities of the wives, but the attitudes of their children. Those kids have grown up an an certain environment. They have been indoctrinated by the controllers of that environment. Just consider the outlook of German kids who grew up under the NAZI regime. At the end of WWII, when the world hey grew up in came to an end, they lost all that they knew. They had to undergo education to let them learn that what they believed in, one could say their morality was not the truth. I wonder how many of them were mever able to fully change their ideas. The same can be said for all children, no matter what ideological system they grew up in. Isn't the Aussie Spirit we try to instill in our children just another ideological system? I say, let those adults amongst them who were Australian citizens, return. However, let us give the children of those people all the help we can to detoxify from what they have been lead to believe was acceptable.

If you want more expensive energy build new coal fired power stations and you will also get added pollution and greenhouse gasses we are trying to reduce. Plus it would take up to 8 years to build. The problem is venture capitalists and banks won't touch this option with a barge pole. Why? Among many reasons it is just not financially viable. The grid was neglected for 20 years by successive governments & population increase along with increased demand for electricity and the costs associated with upgrading the grid are enormous. Add the constant complaints from people who don't want transmission lines on their land and the costs of compliance and you get a logistical and financial nightmare. Storage is the answer. See Octaves comments. I have 9kW of Solar & an 18.6 kWh battery & don't use any grid power and I charge my EV for free as well. Rooftop solar produces more power during the day than all of Australias fossil fuel power generators combined. There is so much the wholesale price in the middle of the day is almost always negative. I sell most of my stored energy during peak demand & keep enough to cover my use overnight & during the peak morning period. Not everyone can do what I do but there are 4 & a half million houses with rooftop solar & all of these could have a home battery. The state and federal home battery subsidies have been so successful that half of the original $2.3 billion expected to last to 2030 was used up in 6 months. Now an additional $4.9 billion has been added along with changes based on battery capacity.

Looks like Canada has his number.

You obviously haven't studied what is happening in W.A. The W.A. State Govt has thrown multiple hundreds of millions (possibly billions by now), trying to keep W.A.'s coal-powered power generation going. W.A.'s coal powered electricity comes from two coal power stations at Collie. Muja (owned by the W.A. Govt) provides 85% of W.A.'s coal power, and Bluewaters, a privately-owned power station, provides the other 15% of W.A. coal power. First, about 10 or 12 years ago, it was $380M of W.A. taxpayers money sent down the drain trying to refurbish a rotted out Muja power station, under a State Liberal Govt. Like trying to restore a rotted-out vintage car, the more they repaired, the more corrosion they found. They gave up and called it a day before a billion or two went down the drain trying to fix the wreck of a power station. Enter Griffin Coal and Premier Coal. Griffin Coal is one of W.A.'s major coal producers. It has lost $1.3B since 2011. It is owned by an Indian corporation, it has been in receivership for several years, and it's almost certainly facing bankruptcy. But the W.A. Govt keeps pouring endless amounts of money into Griffin, to ensure it has adequate coal to keep the W.A.-Govt owned Muja coal-fired power station going. Over $300M at last count. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-21/roger-cook-extends-griffin-coal-financial-lifeline/106250998 Then we have Premier Coal. Premier (privately owned - by the Chinese) has too much coal, and can't sell what it produces, so the W.A. Govt pours money into Premier Coal to ensure hundreds of Collie workers don't end up unemployed. Despite all that subsidising, Premier have just announced around 70 to 100 jobs are to go at the company as they "readjust production" to suit the declining coal market. All this State Govt money going into coal-powered electricity production in W.A. means power prices aren't rocketing, and the power cost rises are being kept to an acceptable level. But the subsidies are a major burden on all W.A. taxpayers, and a hidden cost to W.A.'s coal-fired electricity production. So much for the "cost burden" of going over to renewable energy. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-22/collie-job-cuts-coal-mine-merger-push/106591996

Trump wouldn't last 5 minutes as Leader of China. If you don't deliver , you are gone. Nev

Most of the PEOPLE who Pay Journalists and control what they say are Pro Coal and Oil Nuclear and wars. and "despise" Unions who represent workers and strive to Improve their conditions. The Farmers Have their Federation. The franchise Chemist Warehouse has Plenty of clout, Too Much?? . Wars make money and sell Papers. The little Man can keep quiet and think himself lucky to not starve. Slaves were the Foundation of America's system, don't forget . How ironic that the downtrodden still don't Matter.. Nev