Jerry_Atrick

As @octave mentione, the wholesale prices are down, and a lot of what is being paid is infrastructre. Remeber, SA is what, the third largest state/terriroty in Australia, and has 1.8m people scattered over it, far less than the other states, and bigger than the NT and ACT. That requires a decent amount of infrastructure to maintain, which will reduce with a full transition to renewables with batteries. France exports a lot of its energy to the UK. Why? Because, since before I was involved in the UK electricity industry, way back in 1996, the government was paralysed 2with its energy policy,. Then some bright sparkdaid gas is cheap.. Let's build a bunch of gass fired generation plants with a 15 year life span, and not have to maintain them in that time (largely not maintain, anyway). At the same time, the same bright spark said let's privatise Nuclear Electric (client of the company I worked for) and Scottish Nuclear (not a client of ours) and form British Energy and float it on the stock exchange. No prizes for guessing what was going to, and did happen to British Energy. It virtuallywent bust because the gas plants could churn out electricity at next to nothing.. At the same time, there were something like 8 operating plantes for British Energy - all due to decommission within the then next 15 - 20 years. At the time, with renewables technology where it was, nuclear was still the best technology. Some plants of other companies were tconverted to biomass burners, but they have their own problems. And, in reality, they are anly renewable after a 20 year cycle or thereabouts. However, renewable technology has come leaps and bounds, but the problem in the UK is planning laws are archaic, dreadfully painful and slow. This didn't impact the gas plants as these were built on existing decomiossioned sites. But, if you want to build capacity in a new site, the planning process can take years. Hinkley Point C, the new build at an existing generation site for the now decomissioned Hinkley Point A and B took over 15 months. Greenfield bew build planning permissions can take years.. The Sizewell C plant had been locked up in planning 26 months.. again at an existing plant. Renewablesin the UK has been deployed - a mix of solar and wind. Plannign takes forever, even for offshore stuff. Coal plants have been decomissioned as have been the expired gas plants. Nothing new has been built, so the UK for many years has been importing from France. However, since renewables have come online, remebering not a single new nuclear or fossil fuel plant has been built in the UK since 2012 (fossil, I think nuclear was 1996). But since renewables have been being installed, on an annualised basis, the UK was a net exporter of Electricity to France in 2022. This may seem o blip, but there are a lot of factors in electricity demand. And the UK has been reducing its reliance on imports over the last 5 or so years, since the UK has been bringing online more and more renewable generation capacity.

Oh, I give up!! (Well done, @Marty_d - has Mi5 or Mi6 called you for a job, yet?)

Are we talking in general, or simply the continued infusion of what has been a dominant global culture over many decades? If in general, the current "lot" seem to be heel bent in providing far more hope across the population than the previous. In terms of infusion of culture - well you could argue they have started to apply some of the brakes with the under 16 social media laws - albeit unintentionally as they are more intended to stop harmful content reaching the under 16s. In addition, the current lot recently passed the Communications Legislation Amendment (Australian Content Requirement for Subscription Video On Demand (Streaming) Services) Bill 2025, into law, requiring streaming services in Australia to invest at least 10% of their Aussie revenue into local content productions. What looks like to be your favoured party, One Nation doesn't appear to consider a media policy and imporant issue according to its own website: https://qld.onenation.org.au/issues. Their education policy mentioned nothing on it - in fact it worries me.. At a time when we are realising that the original Victorian times teaching curricula is not quite fit for purpose anymore, they seem to want to go back to it.. Hmm... Er.. yes.,. force fed US TV inb Australia is a problem.. but that is the free market working for you. Australiam, as an English speaking nation with not much real investment in the media and arts have leveraged a lot of international English speaking content. In the old days, as I recall, it was pedominantly English, with lots of great comedies, dramas, and the like. It transitioned to American TV thaks to its lower price point. It is not the roles of the government to interfere with private market decisions, except to set broad standards. This lot has taken the first step to do that.. it has notbeen on the policy agenda of any other lot that I can see nor remember. But, even when local content is provided, is it local content? A lot of Aussie game shows are actually licensed from either the US or the UK. Remember Sale of the Century, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Big Brother, and a whole lot more. All foreign shows, produced locally. Lots of royalties flow back to their foreign conceivers. I suppose, though, at least they are produced with a distinctive Aussie flavour. The term "Lock it in".. used in who wants to be a millionaire in Australia was not a feature used in the original UK production. Another example, was something like Late Night with Steve Vizard. He openly admitted be copied the David Letterman show format, but abruptly quit when I think it was channel 9 decided to syndicate the David Letterman show. Why, FFS! Yeah - we know the context of what was on the Letterman show, but I would have far preferred to watch Vizard (before his contraversies became public), as it was local - stuff you will never see in the Letterman show. The UK has very similar laws to us.. the difference is by the time the US went global with its productions, the UK was already well advanced of Australia in its media landscape, particularly with content production. In addition, the UK tastes are not the bland pin up model acrtors/actresses with preedicatable plots, comedy that has to be explained to its audience as part of the show, and has a edginess and intelligence that US productions lack to this day. Something like CSI Miami would never survive here.. when I first saw it when I returned to Aus way back in 2003, my response was, "huh" The same over dramatic acting in the same plot every errk, and people watch this.???" We mainly watched ABC and got Foxtel to watch the UK channels. The rest of Europe are not native English speaking, and except for movies and the odd show dubbed in their local tongue, it sort of makes sense for them to make their own productions in their own language. But. likle Australia, many of their local productions are licensed from the UK or mainly the US. Or, like the Vizard show, they copy the forrmat. A firend of mine who lives in Brisbane calls Australia, Ausmerica. When people ask me what Australia is like, I say think of America, with better health and education, but no guns. But, I think both are unfair. We seem to have picked a lot of the advantages, but ny and large pased up most of the more extreme disadvantages. We have picked up many of the disadvantages, but I think that os more from the way the Aussie government works than what has been imported from America. Its just both the Aussie and American systems derive largely (except for Louisianna) commonwealth system. And there are forces in society that seek to manipulate it to their advantage. And I am sorry to say, none of the major and only one of the minor parties are willing to proffer real policy changes to address that. And One Nation is not that one minor party. But good luck getting Pauline to take up your cause.. You may well get some hot air on it, but policy? I doubt it.

I bleieve, under international law, that is tantamount to a foreign act of, and declaration of war.

Gave up long time e ago

There was some sarcasm to my post about him on the moped

Even if he did go to Bali, it isn't exaclty going to the French Riviera or some fancy Caribbean island. I can see him now in a singlet and stubbies shorts, with a stubbie in hand on a rented moped, resplendent with the chin straps dangling from his helmet

I intend to not become shark ship, so that is advice I tend to take in waters where sharks are likely. My partner has called me the most un-Aussie Aussie she has met..

I am moderately senior.. not callous and ruthless enough to be truly senior. It will be a three hour ride in, normally on Tuesday morning.. a night at The Dukes Head Inn, in Richmond - about 12 miles from town.. 12 miles in the Wednedday morning, and then 3 hours back.. So about 3.5 hours is per day. If I didn't turn up, there would be mayhe.. both at home and the office.

Except for the footy call, of course.. that is just pure comedy

Hi and welcome to the forums, @randomx. Sorry to spoil the party a bit.. I am not sure what training is forced through the internet. And what training is done through the internet (online) is usually provided by the relevant institution/organisation/company... There isn't some US central course contrent creation machine that provides courses for everyone. No doubt some of the course creation software is American, but I have found all of my Aussie courses in the King's English. Though I do accept, I haven't seen the term budgie smugglers in any of the Aussie online courses I have taken. As for spell checkers not containing Australian English, here is a screen shot of some of the English proofing languages from my 2019 version of Microsoft Word (yep - 6 years old now, and I am sure English - Australian was available before that): While I agree that American culture has been disproprtioantely pervasive, I would suggest in Australia it started with the commertical TV networks importing cheap American shows, movies, and even news rather than fund home grown talent. The internet has helped further cement American culture dominance, but the internet is also now helping other cultures to be heard. One of my son's favourite bands is a Tibetan music band; my daughter is playing French artists on her phone as I type. In fact, it is I and my partner that play Amercian music more than them. But don't worry.. In about 10 years, we'll all be speaking Mandarin anyway.

Thanks, Pete. As mentioned, the bike was purchased to commute me to and from work. This Tuesday, the forecast is looking mild, so an preparing for my first trip in London and back out on Wednesday, which is looking better, weather wise: This will be taking the M5 north to Bristol and the M4 east to London. Of course, this assumes no road closures. Since I leave between 3 and 3:30am usually, I don't expect it to 3.5 hours. I would doi it in a car in about 3 hours, but it is far more comfortable hurtling at higher speeds in a car than a bike. The return trip will be the reverse - west along the M4 and then south along the M5. I usually leave work after 7pm, so will expect some traffic coming out of London to get to the M4 and then, as hybrid working is here to stay, the traffic usually recedes very quickly on the motorways after 7:30pm - about the time I will hit the M4. This is my normal commute in winter, except that I don't go all the way into central London with the car; I stop at North Sheen or Mortlake (just east of Richmond) where I can get free parking for the train into the city. It normally takes about 2.5 hours, so adding 1/2 hour to get to London at that time of morning should give me around 3 hours. If there is a road closure, in winter my alternate route is the one in pale blue. It is south on the A350 wot Ilchester, east on the A303 until Popham and north on the M3. It is shorter, and at the times I travel normally quicker. However, in winter, even in the car, I am loate to take it as the chances of coming into contact with wildlife is far greater - there is never roadkill on the motorway, but especially in winter, there is plenty on the A303. I do use it in summer though.. deer aren't active at dawn and dusk, so it is pretty safe and shaves 20 or so minutes off the trip.

Butch cassidy and the sun dance kid

Given most of my riding will be at 70mph I am going to speak to my mechanic about the sprocket option.

Nope - preying on peoples' fears to divert attention from the real issues causing damage to their country.. and pi55ed off because the Chump family are down a few billion as the crypto markets have come off their peak

After today's ride. I may need the CBT you refer to! Here is the map of toiday's ride: Yep - that's how far away the CAA/CASA medical examiner is. We have a closer CAA examiner, but she works part time and is booked up months ahead. All up, 5 hours in the saddle - mainly motorway and dual lane carriageway A roads (like motorways) + single lane A roads. It was a grey day today, to boot! The ride there wasn't too bad,. This time I remembered by ear plugs - made a big difference. But my helmet isn't as comfortable as it was when I first tried it on. I am going to have to put it up for sale, swearing on mt first and second born's life it hasn't been dropped - which it hasn't been.. Of course, I would never trust anyone to be honest, so I am not sure why I would ask anyone to trust me, but there are plenty of helmets for sale of farcebook marketplace, so will see how it goes. But, apart from having a purpose for this ride, it gave me a lot of time to really assess the bike. And since the route took me within 200m of the location I purchased it from I don't need to go over old ground. On the motoraway, I stayed mainly at 70mph, except for where there were roadworks, or on the way home, queues south of Bristol thanks to peak hour traffic queuign to get off the motorway at various junctions. I did occasionally take it up to slightly past 80, but sat mainly at 70. The good bits: Oodles of power throughout the range of speeds/gear combos. 6th pulls at 40 miles and hour or beyond 80. Comfortable riding position, egronimically as one would expect (mainly). The Delkovic cans aren't too imposing, but have a reasonablye good warble/grumble sound. Bike is well weighted, handles well on the motorways and twisties and despite its weight/size is very easy to ride. It puts a smile on one's face The storm guards worked a treat - I did have to only intermittently put the heated grips on - and even then I would argue I was being way too soft. The bad bits: For touring, it revs too high for the touring speeds in my opinion. It makes it quite noisy. It could use another gear or one can purchase aftermarket sprokects with one tooth less than the standard, but that negatively impacts acceleration. It's thrirstier than I thought. People on forums qere quoting 200 - 225 miles on a 19 litre tank. I was lucky to get 180., Howeve, I checked the CBF1000 forums and did some research, and although the owners manual is OK with 95 RON, the forums are reporting best fuel efficiency with 98 or better RON. The side stand is piddly and hard to deploy while seated on the bike. The hydarulic hoses from the brake master cylinder block the fuel gauge - you have to always look over them. The oil level viewing glass is recessed too far and is a pain to check unless it is on its centre stand (not always practival due to cambered surfaces). The obvious stator issue - Should be good for a while, but one needs to check the oil is topped up! None too impressedd by the dipped and high beams... But, it could be because they are old globe. May get touring lights anyway. The "ain't perfect, but doesn't really matter bits: Buffeting is worse than I thought given the screen it has. Wake turbulence from trucks seemed to throw one around a liltte more than expected given the weight of the bike. I guess being slightly taller makes it more susceptible. The ride itself was, in the end quite tiring. The drizzle held off and the weather was relatively warm at about 9 degrees, until light started fading. Then the mercury dropped and a fine drizze appeared, thickening to almost a light shower at some places. Once it was dark, the oncoming headlight beams were refracting off the droplets on the visor making it hard to jiudge distances and see lane markings on the motorway in the dark. To top it off, the pervious pilot had run late, so I left later, which meant in peak hour, which on the motorway, is not a great experience. Can't put the cover on tonight as it was raining when I got home. Partner won't allow me to put it on the patio because of the brittle tiles which will cost us more than the bike to replace. So the bike is naked this evening. The dilapidated garage still has too much stuff in it.

Aye, Apples secondhand are still expensive

Day 7 of ownership.. (Sunday). Met Andy from the village on his Ducati. The rain gods were holding back so we decided to head off. Apparently, some bright engineer at Ducati decided for his model, that the wiring harness would be best positioned right behind the front wheel. What could possibly go wong? Hence, Andy only rides it on dry days. We departed the village and took a slight deviation from the map as he wanted to attak some twisties (not of the epicurean type). Am I am coming off a fairly long break, I was wondering if it was a good idea to get a bigger bike than I have ever had as I saw he and his bike's posterior diminish in my vision as he pulled away. I did catch up with him a few times, but I was takign things easy and getting to know the bike. I think that's what I will name "her" (can I use that metaphorical term in today's politically correct age?). Yep, something imaginative like "the bike" rings well with me. Anyway, as I looked down to check all things were OK, I realise I had forgotten that these things called motorbikes need this thing called fuel to go.. I had almost totally forgotten as I spied this white needle nudging the red area of the fuekl gauge to tell me it was hitting the reserves. Ship! We were a fair way from the nearest garage that was open and I had no idea how many litres or miles I had. I have read the owner's manual, but had a total blank of what I had left. As it turned out, we made it to Minehead without the needle moving much intot he red and bee-lined it to the Tescos (think Coles, but a little better), which had a "forecourt" (i.e. petrol station/garage). Why the English need to call teh same thing something different because of where it is located has escaped me to this day. Anyway, I digress. I realise, of the 19 litre tank, I can only put is almost 13 litres, so I feel the reserve is uite sufficient to get me home, but I am relieved that I have filled up the bike with much needed fuel. The ride home was slightly different. We went along the originally planned route, which has more cars (the other route had more bikes than cars. The rain started, so Andy was in a hurry to get home. But, as I followed him, my confidence grew and I was leaning into the turns better, trusting my rubbers (oi! front and rear tyres - not what you're thinking - although one has to trust those, too). Andy and his bike's posterior never reduced to a dot on the horizon as they did previously.. In fact, I had to will hom to overtake once.. I guess he was worried about those Ducati electrics. We arrive back at my place, and Andy and I had a chin wag for wa while, as the light rain had well and truly subsided. He was providing me good advice and we were already planning a) the next ride out, and b) maybe starting the Halse Angels (@Marty_d, you will be an honurary patron for coming up with the name in the first place). Day 8 (Monday), and I realise, ship, despite there not being terriblyy much riding, as some of it is down counry lanes, the bike dirty.. And I don't have a) cleaning kit, not b) chain/brake cleaning/degreasing (chain) and lube kit, But, the bike sits under covers all day. Day 9 and it is under covers all day. But I buy from a local shop the chain degreaser and lube, but they have no chain cleaning brushes. Day 10 (today), there is a 5th rider I know of from Halse who can join the Halse Angels. Son's CBT training is done. Day 11 (tomorrow): The weather, though slightly raining, is going to be warmish - 10 - 11 degrees. Plan is here to Oxford (Near RAF Benson) for a Class 2 CAA and CASA medical. And I am taking the bike! Notice, it is called the bike.. not the town bike, for a reason. Loves to be ridden, but only by one guy.

Dang.. tired everythign I know... Bloomberg must know I am a previous terminal user and refuses to allow me to read the article until I subscribe.

A long lost xth cousin of mine had a HQ panelvan (don't think it was a Sandman, but it was hotted up in the old vernacular). He hit a roo at speed (I am guessing c. 100kph), and the roo ended up in the car, hit him and he suffered mild brain damage as a result. I am not sure less aerodynamic cars makes that much of a difference - maybe at lower speeds (say 60kph) it does.

I only buy second hand phones from dodgy phone shops around town. But, I find they work well. I have a Samsung A52 that was about two years old when I bought it and I have had it three years. Paid £100 for it, and it is fantastic. Doesn't miss a beat. I bought my son a 5g version of it for £140.. goes like the clappers. The camera though, is carp. @red750 - lower end Samsungs may not have the phone uality you want given your photographic skills. See if you can try one before you buy it.. My son ended up saving for himself and bought a one-13 or something - some Chinese "rubbish" Wasn't cheap, but for 1/2 the proice of whatever iphone was the latest when he bought it, and with better chips and camera, it was a steal. He gave me the A52 I bought for him, but I like my older one that is only 4g so much, have never bothered "upgrading".

Yep.. that is where he succeeds where other pollies fail

The reality is Labor is politically failing big time and the conservatives have become such a basket case, they make the Libs look like rational people caring for the wider population. The Lib demo are for some reason unable to capitalise mainly because they look like a lefty version of Labour, I guess. Quite amazingly, the Greens are on course to poll better than Labour: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/11/greens-overtake-labour-polls-zack-polanski There is some resentment over the failure of Brexit, but that is more attributed to the Conservatives handling of it and Labour failing to grasp the new opportunities Brexit apparently provides than Brexit itself.. And Farage has the gift of the gab and uses it far more skillfully than Chump.. and he is able to deflect blame successfully to immigration and when it goes pear shaped, not enough of the press hold him to account for some strange reason. Even the Reform councils that are sending their councils broke or being convicted of crimes seems to not make headlines. I think it is a case of them at least appearing to be listening to the little person..

Fixed average speed cameras seem to work pretty well here. Cheaper to install I would guess and can pay for themselves too

Sounds like an inappropriate use of Technology when speed bumps do the job adequately or at least no less inadequately