kgwilson

The King Island design is ingenious deriving its concept from blowholes which concentrates the energy from the wave and unlike other designs sits on the sea floor. A lot of other designs have failed when they end up being damaged by rough seas. Tidal energy has been around for a long time using water turbines where there is a large tidal flow. The first one in the world was the Rance tidal power plant opened in 1966 in Brittany, France and at its peak generates 240 megawatts with an average of 57 megawatts.

After Hansons latest racist gaffe in the Senate I would not be surprised to see Dutton cuddling up to it/her.

I have just installed a new water heater. The original that was installed when the house was built in 2010 was a heat pump and after 4 years the compressor unit failed. It was out of warranty but it was replaced for free anyway with a series 2 unit so credit to Rheem for that. It was still going but had a fault and the backup 3.6kw element was now operating. I only noticed it when making my monthly energy usage check & it had skyrocketed. The model I had got the worst rating from consumers of any on the market but when it was working properly provided about 2900 watts of energy for 800 watts of input. It had a 325 litre tank which is way bigger than needed by 2 people The new one is far better and got many excellent reviews and came out on top of an industry test of a whole lot of different brands. It is from Brisbane company Evoheat and uses 450 watts of energy to create over 1700 watts with a tank size of 150 litres. It has all sorts of excellent features including a timer so I have set it to run only when my solar PV system is producing power so it essentially costs nothing to run. It is also hooked up to my wifi so I can change anything and check the water temperature etc from anywhere. Quality isn't cheap though & it cost $3,400.00 but I got just under $1000.00 by selling the STCs so the total cost was $2,400.00 plus the plumbers $220.00 installation charge.

Most LPG (62%) actually is refined from natural gas & the rest from the petro-chemical industry. Currently it only provides about 3% of all energy consumed and burns very cleanly (mostly butane & propane) producing no soot, very little sulphur and no ground water pollutants but it does produce a lot of CO2 so is a source of green house gas. Like everything we will adapt to not having it so long as a race we survive till then. It has only been around for 100 years or so & in common use for less than 50 years.

While the Russians now control most of the cities in the Donbas they have nothing to offer as they have a scorched earth policy so most of the cities are rubble and burned out buildings devoid of people. Ukraine says it still controls 45% of the Dondas region.

Many countries have either banned or set a date for banning of new gas connections. Even the days of LPG BBQs are numbered. This will creep up on us faster than we might think (but I will probably be dead then).

The Russians, well it was the Soviets then, won by the overwhelming supply of man/women power. In Stalingrad many were sent in without arms & were told to pick up the rifles from their fallen comrades. They lost over 20 million people in WW2. They killed more of their own people than the US lost during the entire war. They also built factories so remote from the war that the Germans had no way of combatting their war machine. They got a lot of stuff from the US & Britain during the time they were ramping up their own production. For example they built over 57,000 T34 tanks during WW2. They built between 31,000 & 36,000 Ilyushin II-2s more than any other combat aircraft of WW2.

Governments should always do better but they always do worse. They set up a department to do something but because the people charged with running that dept have no idea how to do anything, they employ people who say they do. These people don't know so they get in consultants and then they employ all sorts of people who either know everything about nothing or nothing about everything & very soon a new bureaucracy is in place. The bureaucrats think up all sorts of ways to make everything so complex that even they don't know how anything works so they employ even more people to explain everything to the public. In the end they decide it is all far too hard and it would be far better to privatise it. Simples.

About 80%of the batteries made for EVs come from just 4 manufacturers. CATL is the largest followed by LG, Panasonic & BYD. Tesla gets its batteries from the top 3 & Panasonic is to make its new 4680 batteries. Development is expanding at an exponential rate with the cost decreasing per KW as capacity and quantity increases. Battery life is also increasing dramatically with latest offerings providing up to 1 million km & even after that they are still good for installing in your home. Tesla has its own battery recycling plant but it has recycled virtually none of the batteries from old vehicles as they get used for other purposes so is only recycling damaged or defective batteries at this stage. So as a potential EV purchaser what do I do. Prices are decreasing. The cheapest now come from Chinese manufacturer BYD. The Atto 3 is now available in Australia for under $45k & the Dolphin is likely to be around the $35k mark. Reviews from motoring experts are heaping praise on both vehicles with the only complaints being the crappy Chinese tyres. The only problem is supply. All of the production for Australia so far is pre sold. With demand outstripping supply by miles there won't be any discounts till new models start appearing with longer range batteries & current owners start trading in their existing EVs. It looks like I may have to wait a while yet.

I have spoken to quite a few EV owners and have yet to find one who is not absolutely enamoured with his/her EV. All have day jobs and charge the vehicles overnight at home. Most don't have high capacity chargers, just the standard 10 amp socket. Fast charging stations are few & far between at this stage and Australia is miles behind the rest of the world but now with a change of Government attitude things should improve. CATLs new QILIN battery technology will start being installed in cars in early 2023. It has dramatically improved energy density and can be charged from 0 to 80% in about 10 minutes with energy density of 255W per KG at the pack level. This will provide real world driving range well over 1000km for medium size cars. For most people though charging from home at night will work just fine. If you also have a battery linked to your PV system then power can be transferred both ways. To the car when it is low and from the car when there is a power cut. The current development is mind boggling and dramatic improvements will be here before we know it, certainly within a couple of years

It is a common problem with politicians both mainstream and fringe, they all have a belief system and that clouds their judgement when they should be pragmatic and make decisions based on evidence and not their beliefs.

It is like going back to the 60s. The new model actually has a heater. Why would the previous model not have a heater in a place where the Winters are some of the coldest on Earth. The Russians have certainly learned western spin. It has 4 speakers but no audio system or screen & they are touting this as "Multimedia Ready". Hilarious. Meanwhile Putins "scorched earth" policy has seen Siervierodonetsk turn into another Mariopol. This time though they are dug in under a Chemical factory and are getting supplies despite the Russians blowing up all the bridges. Hopefully the supply of new western weapons will get there soon to push them back.

Another religious nut job bites the dust

How are you a hardened criminal at 3 years old? That is learned behaviour based on the lifestyle chosen much later on in life and all of this is in the Australian community. Drive by shootings between gangs in Auckland was never an issue till Aussie trained criminals got deported after they had served their time. Yes they should be locked up but you have to catch them first. It happens all the time in Western Sydney & Melbourne & only some get caught. Some also get shot or disappear. The police seem to know who all these people are but can't do anything until they get evidence & witnesses prepared to testify. Virtually none do as they know what their fate will be. Even when there are raids and police purges and they find heaps of weapons, drugs, stolen property and cash a few go down but the gang pops up again almost immediately. I don't have a solution as we live in a civilised society. In Saudi it is simple, they execute them all even if they are not guilty.

Albo is hosting Jacinda Ardern today after her recent rock star reception in the US where she spoke of their gun laws & what NZ did about the Christchurch massacre to Biden & a host of TV shows which was basically what Howard did after Port Arthur. NZ has had an increase in drive by shootings between gangs fuelled by the deportation of hardened crims from Australia that were born in NZ but arrived as toddlers. Albo may have a softer approach to this than Dutton but I can't see much change here. NZ sees it as Australia exporting their problems & Australia sees it as a valid deportation of hardened criminals who are not Australian citizens.

Not sure about the cullinary habits of Jews and Muslims but they are missing out on the 4 most important food groups which are bacon, bacon, bacon and protein which is also bacon. Court records have aptly shown many Catholic Priests do have sex, mostly with Altar boys.

The US will only do what the US wants to do so no matter who is getting invaded or attacked if it is not in the interests of the US regardless of treaties and alliances it will always please itself. The US is at war with itself and has been for a very long time. There is till a lot of support for the confederates, slavery & republicans are obsessed with the second amendment.

The one area where Russia has always had superiority is Rocketry. This includes from before WW2. German development was rapid during WW2 but the Russian technology has always been at least one step ahead though they did gain a lot of German technology during their march Eastwards in 1944.

The Ukranians are struggling in the East but continuing to inflict a lot of damage to advancing Russians but in another report it seems that Ukraine has mounted a counter attack offensive in Kherson https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/2022/05/30/ukraine-launches-counter-attack-to-recapture-kherson-as-donbas-city-breached/

The Russian advance is continuing but the Ukrainians are making them pay for every inch of ground. The US heavy artillery continues to arrive & now they may be getting long range rocketry. Putin still seems hell bent on destroying every building there is in the towns he is taking so there seems little gain other than territory. Eventually due to the rate they are using equipment & ammunition they will have to slow down or stop and regroup while their supply lines can catch up. I reckon there will be another well timed counter offensive from Ukraine combined with co-ordinated Partisan distractions and attacks behind the lines that will cause major upsets. Putin reportedly spent 80 minutes on the phone to the Germans & French complaining about their supply of arms & ammo to Ukraine. They told him he'd better start talking to Zelenskyy about a cease fire. He won't of course so another nail starts to get driven in.

Griffs travel docos are all worth watching. Combines really interesting information about a place with some great offbeat humour.

I absolutely loathe commercial TV. Anything even remotely watchable is peppered with advertising. I used to have Foxtel mainly for sport, movies and drama but got rid of it (don't need to line Murdochs pockets) & now have a good LG OLED 4K Smart TV & subscribe as required. I watch ABC news & current affairs (4 corners & Foreign Correspondent) Mediawatch, Gardening Australia, Grand Designs (NZ & UK) & some of the dramas (mainly British). Otherwise it is Netflix or Stan mostly for good Movies & Dramas. Mostly British productions & some locally produced for the quality of production. There are a few American movies/dramas that are good but the bulk are awful with predictable plots (if there even is a plot) crappy acting and too much gun violence. Can't stand any of the super hero stuff. We are currently watching an 8 part BBC series on Netflix "Black Earth Rising".

Reminds me of Marl Knopflers song "Don't Crash the Ambulance" which was about George HW Bush's advice to George W Bush when he took the US presidency. From the last verse below & of course the last line is definitely American. "We don't forget who put us here, jack That's page one We talk soft but carry a big stick And pack the biggest gun"

Since the retail electricity market was opened up about 10 years ago there have been dozens of retailers and new ones popping up all the time. Originally I was with Country Energy when the house was built. They were absorbed by Origin & the prices began to increase. I have changed several times when better deals turned up. These included Momentum Energy, Red Energy and Energy Australia and now Elysian Energy and I am about to change again to Simply Energy. I have solar panels but it is only a 2kw system & I use just over half of what I produce. Each time I used a comparison website to find out the best deal. Initially there were contracts with timeframes and exit fees etc but these have largely disappeared. There is always a timeframe for the big enticement discounts. I've only been with Elysian since 25th of January & have had 4 monthly bills all of which they have stuffed up & now they have changed the plan with 15 days notice & reduced the amount of power I get for the money, hence my latest change. Mainly due to the price of coal, generation costs have doubled in the past year & at this stage there is insufficient wind & solar & zero pumped hydro to take over all of which is now infinitely cheaper than dirty polluting coal. My latest deal with Simply Energy is 23% off the NSW Government set rates including the supply charge which ends up close to half of the bill. The downside is the solar feed in tariff is only 5c a KWh. A few years ago I was getting 18c a kWh. I have a time of use meter with Peak, Shoulder, Off Peak and Feed in kWh numbers. Electricity is a product where quality is the same no matter who the retailer is & you don't get a choice how it is delivered so for me cheapest is always best. How retailers package their deal is the bit you have to navigate through to find out who has the cheapest deal.

They probably award the medals to themselves. Maybe 1 for every month they survive under Kim Jong-un