onetrack

Litespeed, it gets better. You might need a whole carton of beer to dull the energy costs pain ....... ENERGY NEWS: Ausgrid recorded a significant profit of $546 million for the most recent period (FY ended June 30, 2025), with $517 million of that being handed to shareholders, as customers face rising power bills. This was a "bumper profit" for the company and was met with criticism, given the increase in customer electricity costs. Key Details: Profit Amount: Ausgrid's profit for the most recent period was $546 million. Shareholder Payout: $517 million of this profit was distributed to shareholders. Context: This profit was reported as Australian households are experiencing higher electricity prices. Regulatory Scrutiny: The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) is reportedly under scrutiny for agreeing to increase Ausgrid's operating budget by nearly 10%. Criticism: The situation has drawn criticism, with some labeling it an "insane profit" as electricity costs for consumers continue to rise.

Trail mix.

W.A. has a unique stand-alone power grid covering a third of the continent and there are many isolated mines that require huge power. The problems are all being addressed by wind, solar, grid-scale batteries, and diesel backup in remote regions - which is working quite satisfactorily for most operators. Kalgoorlie-Boulder has been having some problems, but that is a problem connected to backup generators, that are not performing when the grid goes down, or when it's switched off for upgrades/maintenance, etc. The big test will be to see if we can do without our Collie coal power generation in the time frame set - 2030. At this point, the time frame is looking too optimistic. But Collie has been losing money hand over fist for more than a decade, so no loss there. W.A. taxpayers poured over $310M into reconditioning the Muja AB (Collie) power station in 2009 - pushed by the Barnett Liberal Govt - that became a total and absolute waste - the generator was corroded out from top to bottom, and became a money pit, the timeline for the reconditioning blew out from 2011 to 2015 - and it was scrapped within 2 years of the reconditioning, as it looked like another $500M would be needed to keep it operational. In addition, hundreds of millions were wasted here on the left coast, in separating retail electricity from the power generation side. Multiple corporations were formed at huge expense (with finance and accounting companies getting richly rewarded), and then within a few years, the corporations had to be merged again - "to reduce costs". The same thing happened in S.A. - it reportedly cost S.A. electricity users $350M in the early 2000's for their power "corporations" debacle, when the Govt-owned electricity provider was split up. So, it's not just the power generation methods that are creating unnecessary costs for electricity users, it's also the shonky management of those assets.

There's a lot of small businesses asking for cash as a preferred payment system today - and I'm happy to oblige. I also detest the payment surcharges, and when I see a sign saying the business adds a surcharge, I always pay in cash. A local Japanese restaurant actually offers a 5% discount if you pay by cash. I always have a good amount of cash on hand, one never knows when the electronic transaction system is going to go down for an extended period.

It was pretty common to prank colleagues, by leaving a note to "call Mr Lyon" - with the number of the local zoo attached.

Step up to the plate.

One of the major problems with nuclear power plants is the need for vast amounts of cooling water. That means nuclear power plants must be sited close to the coast, to enable the use of seawater cooling. There are no major bodies of water in the interior of Australia, anywhere, that can provide the necessary amounts of cooling water for a nuclear power plant. And when you use seawater for cooling, everything in the system must be stainless, or special alloys that resist chloride stress corrosion. That adds huge costs to the nuclear plant. Plus, everything in the system must be foolproof, with double and triple redundancy, and automated shutdown if something unexpected goes wrong. All this keeps adding up and up. There are plenty of nuclear power plants that have been in the construction stage for over 20 years, and are still not completed. And as the construction time becomes more and more drawn-out, so the costs just keep on mounting. South Africa's only nuclear power plant is still suffering from major problems with aging steam generators, and plans to construct a new nuclear power plant a few years ago were scrapped, due to massive corruption in that deal. They are talking about SMR's for new energy generation, but nothing has come of those talks, and no-one has come forward with any viable deal to deliver economically sound, working SMR's, to suit the South Africans needs.

The U.S. farmers are in deep poo, thanks to Trumps tariffs, on-again, off-again "trade deals" that lead to massive uncertainty and dampening of steady trade - and the fact that China has decided to diversify its grain sources away from a major reliance on U.S. farmers. China usually purchases 12-13M tonnes of soybeans from U.S. farmers. To date, the Chinese have bought exactly nothing, by way of U.S. soybeans and other U.S. grains, this season. The beneficiaries are Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and Australia, as China turns to these nations to source its grain supplies. The Chinese have just purchased 10 cargoes (650,000 tonnes) of Argentinian soybeans, because the Argentinian Govt dropped its soybean export tax to assist with soybean export sales. There are reports that the Chinese purchase of Argentinian soybeans may end up 15 cargoes. A lot depends on just how much the Argentinians can spare by way of soybeans, they need to keep adequate domestic stocks. Brazil is next in line for big soybean sales to China. China has already purchased vastly increased amounts of all types of Brazilian grains. Australia is in the box seat to make increased grain sales to China, at the expense of the American farmers. At present, U.S. soybean prices are low, and heading lower. And the U.S. grain storage facilities are full, and the current soybean crop harvest is just starting! - so they're running out of storage AND sales options. Add in the fact that world grains are generally in good supply, and current crops are good, so the outlook is grim for U.S. croppers. To top it all off, Trump tariffs on steel and many other agricultural inputs have meant that prices for farm machinery and other farm inputs, have all gone up. Trump is going to have to find a vastly increased amount of farm subsidies in a U.S. budget that has little money to spare - unless Trump cuts far deeper on a wide range of Govt cuts, that will really start hurting very soon. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-chinese-buyers-book-least-040604740.html

Well, that'd be a dead loss of a call!

Gee, I'd be concerned if I got a message like that. Do you still have the same plates on the car, or have the midnight crims swapped their plates for yours?

Blood is thicker than water.

It seems like a more than a few people have sighted strange lights in the Mid-West of W.A. (and further inland). No-one has come forward to say, "yes, that's our light show", and even the "experts" are grasping at straws to explain them. I'd have to guess they're possibly big Chinese lanterns. I'd like to see video of their movements. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-24/unexplained-uap-sightings-reported-across-midwest-wa/105803264

I only just noticed, that in the fastener links I posted above, nearly all the shorter lengths in small diameter bolts, are threaded all the way to the head, and are therefore set screws. Even a Caterpillar 5/16" x 1" bolt only has 1/4" grip length. It must be an SAE engineering standards thing (not that Cat follow SAE standards, they like to make their own). I know your pain, and I've had the same problem many times before, where I needed a small bolt with maximum grip length, usually when a bolt shank has the likes of a clevis rotating on it. What I do, is grab a longer bolt with the required grip length, and cut off the unnecessary threaded section. Trim the cut end on the grinder and wire wheel, so the nut goes on smoothly, and Bob's yer uncle.

That's interesting. The rates changed on Saturday Sept 20th, there should have been a slight increase in your pension payment for this week. I get paid the aged pension from DVA, I got paid last Thursday, my next pension payment is on Thurs Oct 2nd, and I expect to see a pro-rata increase in that payment. DVA sends me a letter (well, email actually now) stating the amounts that are being paid each pension day, after any increase. My pension is calculated on a daily payment basis, and AFAIK, the Centrelink pension is calculated the same way. There is a period of "transitional payments" before the new full rate is paid. https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/how-much-age-pension-you-can-get?context=22526#a2

More importantly, Albo should go to the meeting with a handful of pieces of paper, and coloured textas, and draw diagrams and pictures for the Donald, as he tries to explain our countries relationship, because Donald doesn't read anything.

Taking health advice from Trump and Kennedy, is like taking family planning and child-raising advice, from Catholic priests!!

Nev, what they actually mean, is you're not quite as doddery as some of your companions! - and they're making allowances for your "senior" moments! 🙂

I don't believe "newer is better" when it comes to phones (and a lot of other electronic items). SWMBO and I each had Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phones for several years, from about 2016 to 2022. The Note 4 came out in 2014 and it was a cracker of a phone, easy to use, had a stylus in it, that you wrote notes on the screen with, and it took good photos. But we had to give the Note 4's up, because they fell behind in bandwidth capabilities. Plus, I ran over my Note 4 with my tractor crane, and didn't do it much good! - but it still worked, even with a buckled case! So SWMBO bought a Galaxy A54 and I bought a Motorola Edge 30 Fusion. Both are disappointments, and both lack many features that the Note 4 had. The Note 4's had replaceable batteries, the A54 and the Edge 30 have sealed cases. And the Edge 30 has a back and front that is made of glass (as I found out, as soon as I dropped it!) It's a PIA, because the phone is almost "unfixable" - and when I went past a phone repair kiosk and asked about fixing the cracked case, they wanted $250 to fix it! I only paid a bit under $500 for the Edge 30, so paying $250 to simply fix a shattered case is a dead loss! It still works O.K., it just looks like crap. SWMBO is disappointed in her A54, every upgrade seems to change so many features on the phone, she has to try and find out what happened, and figure out how it all works with the upgrade. And both phones have poor user-friendliness, with so many features hidden under menus and icons, that you need to spend hours figuring out where the features are. I don't know what to buy for a new phone, the new Galaxys are full of photography gimmicks, with 3 cameras and everything oriented towards taking photos. I'd prefer a basic but robust model, and good user-friendliness, over 20 imaging gimmickry setups. I must be getting old, I don't take a hundred selfies a day, and don't have a website with 100,000 followers hanging on every single thing I'm doing, every minute of the day! - so, I'm definitely lagging! 😞

A company named Rotten Apple Inc., doesn't inspire confidence, especially with the amount of white collar crime! https://www.facebook.com/rottenappleinc/

The Kidston Pumped Hydro project is approaching completion and is one of the largest renewable energy projects in Qld. However, the way they're going about it, seems complex and unnecessarily costly to me. I can't see why they need to install major tunnels through hard rock, I would have thought large diameter piping would have sufficed. But perhaps the durability of the piping was unsatisfactory for the long-term. https://www.waterpowermagazine.com/analysis/lessons-from-excavating-the-250mw-kidston-pumped-storage-project/?cf-view

Battery storage is recognised as the answer, but it will be a slow grind to a successful transition away from coal and gas, and personally I don't believe Net Zero is achievable in the tight time frame set. However, I don't think there's anything wrong with setting a time frame, it just needs to be flexible. I believe more money should be invested in pumped hydro. I see a lot of huge open-pit abandoned mines throughout W.A., that have high piles of overburden (waste dumps) placed alongside them. Most of those open pits are half full of water. With the major height difference the holes and the tops of the waste dumps, it seems a no-brainer to me to set up pumped hydro on these otherwise worthless holes and dumps. In addition, they're in rural and remote areas, and there are generally power transmission lines nearby, so the existing transmission lines can be utilised to send power back to the high population coastal areas - where no-one wants "ugly" wind turbines or solar farms.

Whoa, imagine if the machines of the future became as smart as a MAGA supporter?? 🙄

She's a dill of the highest order. A seat warmer, until the Libs can actually find a candidate with some leadership skills - which may not happen in my lifetime.

I missed this one - but Sergei I. Sikorsky, son of the famous Igor Sikorsky, died on Sept 18th, aged 100. What a great life! He decided he would design aviation machines at age 8, when he took a ride with his father in one of Igors seaplane designs. Sergei spent nearly all his life in the employ of Sikorsky aircraft, apart from WW2 and a few post-war years. He joined the U.S. Coast Guard in 1942, as a helicopter mechanic. His father was already producing helicopters for the U.S. Navy by this time. The U.S. Coast Guard was transferred to the USN in Dec 1941, and the USN allocated Sergei to the Helicopter Development Program. He joined United Technologies (owner of Sikorsky Aircraft) in 1951 as a marketing specialist. United Technologies was previously named United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, and it had purchased the Sikorsky Aviation Corp in 1929. He retired from the company in 1992. Amazingly, there is no Wikipedia information page for Sergei Sikorsky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9Y6czS1hOA

Reverse psychology.