Jerry_Atrick

Slower than I want.. but hadn't originally planned to do the windows

Well, time for an update. More of the floor above has been done (on the other side of the room). My partner is fastidious about filling the gaps in the flkoor boards (because anything that gets between them shows up like a sore thumb against the dark stain). The welcome side effect is the room is a lot warmer now. A lot of the new windows have been fitted.. Long post: Upstairs Dunny window as it was: and for some reason, don't have an outside shot of it. Upstairs Dunny new window: (Hmm No outside version) Upstairs Shower Room Window as it was (note, the area around the sill was previously tiled - this was taken while work needed to be completed). (Again, for some reason, no outside version) New upstairs shower room Upstairs Main Bathroom that was (the top one) Upstairs bathroom that is: Upstairs single bedroom as was: No Outside Shot for some reason Upstairs Single Bedroom Now Upstairs - First Larget Bedroom as it was As it is Middle Large Bedroom as it was Middle Large Bedroom as is (the top one - the bottom one is the formal dining room...) Main Bedroom as was As is: 2nd smaller bedroom as was Don't have an outside one for some reason As is: Formal Dining Room as it was And now as it is: (Bottom one) And here are the ones to go, apart from the kitchen door replacement and the new bifolds which will replace the formal living room windows in the Bat, This is for this kitchen/diner window: The three verticles replace three of these on the flank wall of the kitcheN: The panes to the left of these are for the kitchen/diner window above, I think. The below, I can't get rid of, for some reason... But labelled Formal dining room - new Basemint windos -to be painted and taking the bars down to the concrete. Basement window to the boiler room. Original - can't touch them - just a slight restore to be done. Study window to be replaced by another window maker who specialises in curved windows. You don't want to know how much that is costing me. Kitchen door - to be replaced with wood (it is PVC, as are a few of the others) First of the larger bedrroms Dining room again. The bay window to the formal living room. Will be replaced with bi-fold doors to the garden. Inside of the Bay with an undecorated xmas tree. Inside of the study window. Used to be the private chapel room for the rector. PVC informal dining room - kitchen diner to be replaced from the inside. Study again Kitchen door from the inside. Kitchen door again from the inside showing the gap tha we will be remediating with the new doors. It is PVC. New one will be wood.

Happy new year, everyone! Nev, unless I have missed something, glad your house is safe and hope it stays that way. I am somewhat sanguine re Trump. There's not a lot we can do to change things, so, I will keep abreast of developments, try and work out the outcomes, and adjust accordingly. There are some things I agree about what he wants to achieve - just not sure about the execution. For example, the US debt to GDP ratio of the US is 1.23:1; in other words, US debt is 123% of GDP. When Italy's was this, they were an economic basklet case of Europe (beathenm I think, only by Greece). That is a debt level that cannot be sustained by any country longer term without somethign eventually giving - tax the hell out of the population, inflate your way out (which is a tax when you think about it), or default. Hope it's a good year... Reolution report from lat year was not too bad.. Reduced energy drink consumption marlkedly.. lost a little weight... Sadly, house wasn't completed, so one resolution ties over to next year. Although not in my new year's resolution for last year, I havee now been 7 days alcohol free... thanks to the anitbiotics I am currently on. And I don't miss the wine nor beer.. The only things I miss is Campbell's Rutherglen Muscat, but haven't had much of that lately anyway, and some French stuff, Grand Mariner and Cointreu.. So, one of my new year's resolutions is to drop the alocohol consumption markedly.. 1 good Aussie, Kiwi, or Italian red or white a month (oh, and the odd good Beaujolais), and a single GM or C after a dinner once per week.

An interesting vid comparing the Spit v BF.109:

There are many countries, the USA included that formed the foundations of their money from foreign capital. However, many governments of those economies implemented positive policies to ensure that the wealth from their land, and others, was used to grow domestic ownership and wealth. If you look at the US, one it's state and then federal economies grew to a critical mass, it would, as a government, prefer to buy American, and it continues today: https://www.madeinamerica.gov/ In most middle eastern countries, you cannot have completely foreign owned firms - they have to have a minimum amount of domestic ownership. When I worked in Abu Dhabi (thankfully only for two weeks), it was 50% domestic ownership. It was a license for the domestic population to print money. This was changed in 2020: https://www.jonesday.com/en/insights/2020/12/uae-to-allow-full-foreign-ownership-of-companies The Albanese government promised a Buy Australian policy, but apart from some vague reference to it in the ALP website, I cannot find anything official in guidance or law from any state or federal government sites, or any reference to it in procurement guides for suppliers. I find it crazy how we have (or had) some of the best ertiary engineering and science courses, an abundance of materials, yet our culture is not one of drive and entrepreneurship beyonf getting a flesging company mature enough to sell to the highest foreign bidder. There are many countries with similar or more challenging profiles to ours that have home grown manufacturing, and properly ensure foreign multinationals pay their share of taxes and royalties, for things like primary resources, etc, that we seem to give away with gay abandon. Once someone fixes that, we should be in for a better collective ride.

You can go to https://www.recreationalflying.com/ and become a gold member.. this site is what the old off topic forum was on that site. But Ian may not count that revenue as attributable to this site. I now spend much more time here than recreationalflying.com, but still am a gold member or recreationalflying.com

🤮

One of the things I am looking forward to when returning to Aus is to utilise the many cycling lanes. No, I am not one of the crazy commie cyclists that thinks all road users owe them the ultimate right of way through red lights, give way/stop signs, etc. Nor do I wear lycra (at the risk of being done for indecent exposure).. But what better way to get around for shorter trips when you don't have to lug lots of cargo around.

Christmas day here was good The weather was glorious - about 12 degrees C and sunny. Would you believe it? Ended up in Accident and Emergency, well after the revellers had gone and before the kids were coming in with broken limbs from their new bikes (yes, parents still give their kids activity based gifts around here). Put a rusty nail )not the drink) through my foot - not too deep, but deep enough, and since I haven't had a tetanus shot for about 15 years, decided it was an opportune time to get one. Was in and out of hospital within two hours after an X-Ray, shot, and a bunch of antibiotics, just in case, meant I couldn't have a drink.. which I think is a good thing. Silver cloud, etc. We had the in laws, whom I get on very well with, and a local couple over for the dinner, then friends came over for the ever where 15 of us ended up playing cards against humanity until about midnight. Excellent day all round. Hope yours was a good one.

Merry Christmas all.. hope it is a good one. @facthunter hoping the fire changes track and conditions improve

They're now called fugitive emissions

Yeah, .. I would wait for the long term effects of Ozempic

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?