Jerry_Atrick

The market not buying into nuclear power is not, in itself, an argument that nuclear power is inefficient or expensive. I don't know about the other states, but when I was a kid and yo0ung adult, all pwoer in Vic was, as I recall, owned by the SEC and privatised, I think by Kennett, do retire some debt. I haven't double checked my memory, but the point is, often in countries like Australia, it takes the government to do the big investments, and then they sell to private enterprise to continue. However, the market is investing in renewables, so I would say that, despite the status quo being the easiest way to make money, the private sector sees more value in renewables than seeing keeping the status quo. For example, Origin, does not even mention nuclear here: https://sciencebasedtargets.org/companies-taking-action/case-studies/origin-energy But here is an excerpt: What steps are you taking to implement the target now it is set? Origin has a five-pillar approach to progressively decarbonise our business: Exit coal-fired power generation by 2032 Significantly grow renewables in our portfolio Utilise our strong gas position as a lower-emissions firming fuel in the medium term Empower customers with cleaner, smarter energy solutions Demonstrate leadership in climate change advocacy. While Nuclear is "low emissions" (I would argue not quite in whole of life calculations), they are not featuring it. Nucelar is sort of technically renewable thanks to fuel reprocessing, but the problem with fuel reporcessing is not the residual uranium or plutonium.. it is the radioactive organic fluid (can't remember the composition). That is still and issue, and is concentrated now. It does, however, mean a much smaller volume of radioactive mateirals to store, but they are for more radioactive. There is no such thing as a free lunch in physics, I am afraid. I am not familiar with the power generation history of Denmark, but one coal power plant to power a nation is not a bad thing.. They plan to stop using coal in 2028, though.. Germany's nuclear shutdown was another disaterous decision by Merkel in the wake of the Fukashiima plant failure after the tsunami that hit the Japanese coast. I can honestly say, it was one of the dumbest knee-jerk reactions I have seen. Fukashima outperformed its safety design parameters. Germany's nukes aren't really subject to the same geological risks, and I can only think there may have been some very heavy lobbying by fossil fuel lobyistsm, because a quantum chemist (of which she has a PhD) would know the risks reasonably well compared to taking her country to, at the time, mostly fossil fuel. Quite frankly, I am surprised it has taken Germany so long to try and pull some of the facilities out from the mothballs. Australia, however, doesn't have existing nuclear power infrastructure. Renewables are getting better and better, and as technology progresses, cheaper and cheaper. Nuclear is about technologically peaked, though there is a Japanese reactor technology that is emerging that could be postivie for the induswtry (though I have to look it up again.. ). 20 Years ago, I wouldh happily say nuclear is right for Aus.. Time have moved on.. We can do what we mormally do and embrace yesterday's technology, or we can embrace tomorrow, and for once, get ahead of th curve. We've missed the boat for becoming world leading manufacturers of it.. at least we should benefit by using it.

A vehicle, even no longer in production can be reproduced

I am going to go out on a limb, but as n ex-highway patrolman, OME is one of the more formally trained drivers on here. So I will defer to his better judgement on matters.. A long time ago - maybe 20 years, there was an editorial in The Age, where the author advocated, to save lives, the speed limit should be dropped to 50kph, everywhere. This was before there were 50kph limits and lower, I think. Her sole argument was that speed kills. This wasn't too much after I moved here, where, at the time, speed limits were really guides - at least on more open roads. I found this out on a drive from London to Swansea (to fly a De Havilland Vampire). Along the M4, which is the main 3 lane each way motorway to Wales, I steadfastly stuck to the 70mph limit. I was the slowest on the road, and when a little old lady overtook me, I decided it was time to enjoy the ride. On the way back, I got that little Pugeot 106 on a downhill bit up to 100mph and someone still overtook me. The average speed was about 80 - 85mph. And yes, I did drive at those speeds on the mototways, when traffic and weather conditions permitted, and leaned that the British drivers were far more situationally aware than their antipodean cousins when it came to driving. Also, they were incredibly considerate compared to those same antipodean cousins. They would move over to let you in (or, in urban/suburban roads, stop to let you out of a driveway or side street). When I did my motorcycle licence here, yes, if you spend even 1mph over the limit when you were tested, you would fail. But the training and the test was also about situational awareness, consideration, and getting on with it.. Don't dawdle, the road is full of others who want to get from a to b. This was a stark contrast to the learning I did in Melbourne, which was, apart from the not speeding, you can and should dawdle, and don't worry about other road users, that's their problem. Anyway, in response to this article, I did a bit of research and interesting, where the Europeans are far more speed demons, the only country that fared worse on any measure other than absolute road deaths and life changing injuries, Australia fared worse than all but France. Yes, even Italy was better than Aus. Whether these were per capita, per licensed/learner drivers/riders/etc, per registered vehicles, per miles driven,, Australia was miles behind most European countries (where, for many seat belts seem optional), except Italy was a close third last, and France pipped us. So, it is a lot more than just keep your bloody speed down. I recall the frustration I had with Melbourne drivers when I moved back there. Mo dog, they were incredibly selfish, and largely unaware of their surroundings.. In the UK, they do enforce road laws, but it seems more about practical safety than what I consider ideological speed limits, probably designed as revenue raisers, which was even admitted as such by a Victorian minister of something or other. Over here, you can still speed and not be pursued, as long as you are safe. But, even if you are under the limit, but dangerously driving, you will have the book chucked at you. Of course, we have speed cameras, but the fixed ones are very obvious. And yes, they are a bit more binary in their application. However, things have changed here. Even though, over the years, I have mellowed,, and only do 75 - 80 max on the Motorways, but the driving here has got much worse. I am going to go right wing nut job, but particularly around London, where there is a high ratio of immigrants, as in "new" Brits, the driving is appalling compared to what it was. Anyway, @old man emu, what is your take on speeding.. Is a relentless pursuit of the speed limit that much safer, or what would you consider the higher priority road safety measures to take? BTW, I did respond to the article in The Age with the facts and sources; I never got a response.

Haven't watched this yet:

Not where I am 😉 And of course it beckins the question - what are you doing up at 3:40am - early rising, or late retiring?

It's the basic ignorance caused by and coupled with fossil fuel lobbyist that drives NIMBYs and red tape.

That is bs: https://www.energyglobal.com/special-reports/02082023/the-baseload-fallacy/ I forgot to mention earlier... the policy is not designed to see a nuclear power generation system in Aus; it is designed to make it feel so expensive, we will stick to fossil fuel as we would have killed new renewables on the hope of nuclear..

The Maryland governor appears to have photographed a meteor and the Orion constellation and https://fox28savannah.com/news/nation-world/larry-hogan-says-dozens-of-drones-flew-over-maryland-home-entirely-unacceptable-new-jersey-md-east-coast-flying-objects-ufos What is worrying is worrying ius the members of the legislature andf the president elect are calling for people to shjoot them down because, y'know, they are well trained and can spot say a light aircraft or balloon or glider.. And, y'know.. private gun owners in the US are highjly trained and not trigger happy...

I have worked on nuclear facilities in the Czech Republic, Romania, France, UK, Canada, and the US, including Thre Mile Island. I didn't persdonally witness any accidents or close calls, but used to flip through the incident and accident reports,m and there were some humdingers. There was one client in the US who had a reputation for covering up, and the Nuclear Rgualtory Commission (NRC) would pay unannounced site visits regularly. Whistleblower prtections were strong even 25 years ago and combined with the penalties for covering up meant there was a strong disincentive to try and sweep something under the carpet. But, I don't douibt, as OT says, there are cover ups.. Th thing is, are there enough to suggest it is less safe than, say coal,. I asm sure this graph has been presented before and I noted that the average of wind and solar death rate is the same as nuclear. Given they are a lot cheaper to produc energy and have far less risk, the choiced *shouild* be obvious. @Marty_d - shoiuld I get back to Aus in time for the next general election, I can assure you, despite my criticism of Albo, I would not be voiting for the LNP..their policies are scary.. I probably may not vote Labor, either, unless I happen to live in Julian Hill's electorate.. And about now, I can feel a post coming into the Albo thread..

No worries.,. I am too old these days to get too worried, Many more other things to worry about. I realised you were probably not talking about the floor I was talking about. The floor in the vestibule that I started sanding is still only partially sanded. I was using a belt sander in the end, but the carbon pad melted so I am waiting for another two. My new orbital sander has gone through enough discs that the velcro on the pad has worn through and am waiting for a replacement. The floor I was talking about above is here. The shiuny bit on teh left hand side has the satin oil applied.. the rught hand side and the foreground is to have it applied, but more filling required:

You only have to look at the US election to look at the mindset of people who vote. On of the problems is that many people are for the here and now.. They say Gen Z is the generation that need instant gratification, but it has been like that for time immemorial. And, as @nomadpete says, a lot of people go with the loudest sound bytes (or bildest headlines, often which are inconsistent with the actual article). This may also go some way to explaining the current state of the world. I am not sure how accurate or qualified the viseo is, but at least intuitively, it makes sense?

Thanks for asking. The floors are proving to be quite a challenge. The builder had to do otehr work he had promised customers, so, my partner, who is very creative took over. Prooblem is the floors are quite old and have a lot of imperfections. So, she has been working on it for about a three weekksm trying to get it into shape. It should be finished this week ready for the top coat of clear satin oil. Decorators are in fixing the gympsum based plaster, painting and stuff. They are doing a great job. Another builder starts next week and will be doing work in the basement.. Things are moving... Lime plasterer can't start until Feb. Speaking to an agent this weekend. about 1/3 of the windows are installed.

Unless you use seriously advanced features of Office, need cloud storage, or write lots of VBA, you're a lot better off with Libre Office.

Here;s an example of weak leadership:

As Albo is learning, too

Nev, to be honest I am not sure what you post means (genuinely).. .But my BA, who could probably out-trade most of the traders in our firm, is probably more "woke" (i.e. has a social conscious) than most people on this board. For him, risk management is a passion.. For me, working with risk management pays the bills.. For a reference point, I could probably out-trade.... none.

As long as the holes of the swiss cheese don't aligh, I am happy...

Geometry + trigonometry = games programming.. Many billionaires made from it.

Here ya go... You may no longer have your FRTOL, but you can get hours of enjooyment listening in.. Especially, when you're at Temora: https://www.clearprop.com.au/avionics/radios-scanners-and-gps/50-600mhz-full-band-scanner-radio/

I am led to believe is a sexologist.. This is how far I go back.. she used to be on 3XY radio in Melbourne.

About 8 weeks ago, my best business analyst, and one of the most intelligent and contributing people I have worked with, came down from a meeting with our internal stakeholders, market risk, and said he was offered a one year secondment with the market risk team as a market risk manager and that he wanted to take it. I was a bit gutted as I investged a lot in him.. As a bit of a back frop, he has an at times debilitating menthal health condition. I worked alongside him about 6 years prior to joining this motley crew, and I had no idea he had a problem. However, over lock down, it festered to the point he would go AWOL regularly. I have to say, the firm we work for were fantastic with him. I had become his manager about 3 or so months after joining and his ex manager gave me the low down, including how they threatened to rip up the heath corproate health insurer's contract if they didn't keep paying for his treatment. One of my first meetings with the head of Market Risk was quite tense over his performance, and he was in a bad place. It turns out she also worked at the previous firm we both worked at and she was non-too-happy with him. She didn't know him that well, and I assiured her to have faith because when he is firing on all cylinders, he moves at twice the pace of anyone I have ever worked at. Well, there were many bumps on the way, but with a bit of nurturing, and of course, him finding a partner (with kids, who reminded him he now has responsibilities), he has lifted himself right out of the hole and has hit the speed I knew he could. He has been like that for a bit, so he owes me nothing.. And that same head of market risk offered him the secondment! That was fantastic in itself. We don't expect him back because he was a market risk manager in what was one of the worlds biggest banks by balalnce sheete with very, lets say assertive traders, and he held his own well. Tio put it into context, his is only just now turning 40.. he has achieved far more than many, especially given his condition. Well, having moved on Monday, my team had its Christmas dinner on Tuesday and of course he was coming.. it turned out to be a bit of a farewell dinner to him. It was weeird today speaking to him in a meeting as astakeholder.. darned gamekeeper has turned poacher. But, on Tuesday night, we walked back to the office after dinner, and were yapping, and as we were on different floors, in the lift well, he turned around, grabbed my shoulder, shook my hand and said, "Thanks mate, I could never have done it without you." Iy was a genuine thanks, and I brished it off as his own doing.. I steel feel as chuffed as I did when he said it..

Nope.. But we should patronise his clear prop store for all our aviation needs. Seems pretty well priced.. When I get back, its an Icom transciever.. (I have an 8.33mhz one here).

I use ABCs Android app mostly, and it is fine. I just got on their website and it seems OK to me.. they use some more contemporary icons for functions... but I can find what I want and discard wha I don't want easily; the blog format is familiar. Ther are the most scrutinised news organisation in Australia. They do occasionally get it wrong but, despite being run by a media icon who may align more with commercial interests, if all our news sources were held to the same account, IMHO, the world would be a better place. You're welcome to your opinion. My experience is that they provide an important source of less biased news and balance against other sources that do the bidding of large and mostly foreign corporations buying our pollies and government.. also the standsrd of language is far better than many others. So I would increase their funding and institute a press regulator with teeth to cover all press organisations. Out of interest- what news organisations do you trust?