kgwilson

Well a not so united Europe. Brexit is just the beginning, Italy has had more governments than most have had hot dinners, Greece is broke, the refugee issue is dividing all of the members, there is the right wing resurgence all over and Germany is struggling to find the funds to pay for everything.

Whereas our Christian leaders are finally being found out to be the hypocrites they always were, taking vows of celibacy and abusing children in their care. That sounds pretty barbaric to me.

Maybe the 1% of 2.5% should have been 0.0001%. I don't know but I do think it is the fear factor whipped up by the media reporting that is the biggest problem. Yes there is the odd nutter fundamentalist jihadist Muslim who goes crazy and has a go at beheading someone or whatever. It outrages everyone including 99.999% of the Muslim community. But what about the Christian or Jew or Hindu or Buddhist nutter who has a go at a similar thing. The publicity factor is not as newsworthy.

Australia is supposed to be a secular society but we have holidays based on Christian beliefs, the governments give money to religious schools and many politicians have hard core religious beliefs so humanitarian issues such as dying with dignity etc hardly get a look in. There are religious cranks and hard liners within all religions although at every census the number of Australians who define themselves as having no religion increases dramatically. In 2016 30.1% declared no religion and 9.6% declared nothing, some form of Christianity was 52.1% and Muslims 2.6%. The problem is anything that is a bit unsavoury that has Islam or Muslim involved somewhere gets huge press and publicity. If there is 1% of the 2.6% who are Muslims and hard line jihadist types that is 0.026% of the population. Not a huge number to control I would have thought. The sooner religions die out the better, though I am not holding my breath.

Yep the story is told over and over. If the dog hadn't stopped to Sh1t it would have caught the rabbit.

You get people like Anning in the Senate when the system is so stupid it allows someone with only 19 votes to be elevated to a position of such magnitude. Hitler did it with ruthless aggressive power and fear, our system allows it under the guise of democracy. Now with all the media attention he is sure to get all the votes that might have gone to Paulines mob. No wonder she has denounced him.

The best battery is water from pumped hydro as it has almost an infinite life. The ANU identified over 2000 sites on the East Coast of which only 30 odd would be required to provide all of the energy needed and they could be built by 2020. Wind & solar will be used to pump the water up during the day when there's a surplus & the turbines will run when the demand is high. Wind & solar farms are springing up everywhere but other than the ridiculously huge Snowy 2 what is happening with pumped hydro especially the ones that can use sea water?

A judge was interviewing a woman regarding her pending divorce and asked, "What are the grounds for your divorce?" She replied, "About four acres and a nice little home in the middle of the property with a stream running by." "No," he said, "I mean what is the foundation of this case?" "It is made of concrete, brick, and mortar," she responded. "I mean," he continued, "what are your relations like?" "I have an aunt and uncle living here in town, as well as my husband's parents." The judge took a deep breath and asked, "Do you have a real grudge?" "No," she replied, "we have a two-car carport and have never really needed one." "Please," he tried again, "is there any infidelity in your marriage?" "Yes, both my son and daughter have stereo sets. We don't necessarily like the music, but we can't seem to do anything about it." "Ma'am, does your husband ever beat you up?" "Yes," she responded, "he gets up every morning before I do and makes the coffee." The judge asked, "Is your husband a nagger?" Exasperated she replied, "Oh, hell no, he is white just like you and me!" Finally, in frustration, the judge asked, "Lady, why do you want a divorce? " "Oh, I don't want a divorce," she replied. "I've never wanted a divorce, my husband does. He says he can't communicate with me."

IPA, one of my favourite beer styles.

Yes there is nothing like the radiated heat from a real wood fire. Watching the wood burn is better than anything on TV. Convection heating from a reverse cycle air conditioner is an efficient means of transferring the heat but is not an aesthetically pleasing method.

According to the report on Baseload Power Coal is declared a dinosaur. It has had no effect on the government or right wingers wanting new coal fired power stations built. "Technology has moved on from base load, and now you want flexible power. And that's what demand management, batteries and pumped hydro is," says Professor Andrew Blakers, director of the ANU Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems. "If you have an increase in demand, a coal power station will take hours [to meet it], a gas turbine 20 to 30 minutes, batteries about a second, demand management about a second, and pumped hydro will take anywhere between 20 seconds and two minutes." In the past because coal fired stations had to keep running even if there was no demand the power price went negative so they paid customers to take the power. Researchers say a combination of these rapid response, dynamic power sources is the future of power generation. What about when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow? "All this talk about 'you've got to have baseload power stations' is complete nonsense," says Dr Mark Diesendorf. "It's a dinosaur." His team at the University of New South Wales ran "thousands of computer simulations" correlating hourly power-consumption data from the National Electricity Market (NEM) in 2010, with the potential power generation of renewables, based on recorded weather data for the same year. He claims that a combination of existing technologies, including hydro and biofuelled gas turbines, were able to supply the simulated NEM even during "peak demand" — on winter evenings following overcast days. "No single one does all the job... You probably need a mix of hydro, which may include off-river pumped hydro, and possibly open-cycle-gas turbines," he says. "Pumped hydro is 100-year-old technology, completely off the shelf, and importantly you can get these pumped-hydro sites built before 2022," he says. "A recent study that we published shows that there's about 22,000 [potential] pumped-hydro sites on the east coast. We only need 20 or 30 of them." The latest report just released on Monday highlights the governments folly. Its title is How government inaction fuelled Australia's renewable energy boom. Check out the report at the link below How government inaction fuelled the renewables boom

Even up here in the sub tropics 30 deg south we have had some very cold nights (1-2 deg) and light frost. The sea water temperature is still 20 deg but this time of the year the wind is from the west so it is pretty cold on my morning walks on the beach with the dog. The good thing is that with clear sunny days the temp peaks at about 20 to 22 deg & so long as you are out of the wind it is beautiful. Inland though they are getting -5 to -10 temps & that is real brass monkey stuff. People think that because I came from NZ I'd be used to that sort of cold but in reality the minimums there rarely fall below 0 due to proximity to the ocean & mostlly are around 4 to 6deg but the maximums rarely get over 15 deg. The real difference is that Winter in NZ is the wet season so it always feels way colder than it is.

You could also go to Aldi and spend 30% less than at Woolies or Coles. No bags, no rewards & not as much choice but your wallet notices.

The Bangkok shots show how that without traffic lights & heaps of motorbikes everything keeps moving despite vehicles cutting across the flow & sometimes on the wrong side. That would never happen here. We'd have crashes & road rage punch ups galore.

I currently get 11.1c feed in tariff & pay 31.7c peak & 18.2c off peak & $1.31 daily supply charge. In my area that is the best deal I could get. Now Ipart has recommended reducing the feed in tariff to a range of 6.9 to 8.4 c. In NSW the subsidised gross feed in tariff of around 60c expired about 18 months ago. I am amazed that some in Victoria are still getting massive subsidised feed in tariffs.

Bitumen & Asphalt are apparently one and the same thing but I always considered bitumen to be hot tar spread by spraying & gravel then laid on top & rolled in. It is generally fairly noisy to drive on. Also called Tar Macadam or Tarmac. Asphalt I thought was normally premixed and laid hot by a machine & the surface can be very smooth. I think this is sometimes referred to as Asphalt concrete & does not seem to suffer from extreme heat. This is what they put on motorways near built up areas as it is quieter to drive on than concrete. Am I right here?

The only thing I didn't see was how he cut the neat rectangular holes in the bamboo.

The name Leyonhjelm comes to mind here. He appears sub human to me with an IQ approaching 20, can't remember what was actually ever said and still managed to get elected. What a fantastic system we have. It is lucky that there are enough entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who see through all the political BS and fund solar, wind and pumped hydro while not having a bar of anything remotely linked to fossil fuels. But when it is all operational and we can start getting rid of our old fossil fuelled sources of energy, guess who will take the credit.

I have a good shed cleanout at irregular intervals. Normally when there is no more room or when I get nagged for long enough to want to do it to stop the nagging continuing. The problem is, and this always happens normally within a couple of weeks, sometimes longer, although I have not documented it nor kept any evidence, I find I need one or more of the items I threw out in the last cleanout. This I use as my defence of keeping stuff that I am told I will never need or use.

Vacancy at the FBI The FBI had an opening for an assassin. After all the background checks, interviews and testing were done, there were 3 finalists; Two men and a woman. For the final test, the FBI agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun. 'We must know that you will follow your Instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair .... Kill her!!' The man said, 'You can't be serious I could never shoot my wife.' The agent said, 'Then you're not the right man or this job. Take your wife and go home.' The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet forabout 5 minutes. The man came out with tears in his eyes, 'I tried, But I can't kill my wife.' The agent said, 'You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home.' Finally, it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls.. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman, wiping the sweat from her brow. 'This gun is loaded with blanks' she said. 'I had to kill him with the chair!'

The bloke who defected to Palmers mob is equally defective. Clive has plenty of money but no morals.

Cool. Mr Google can tell you everything. The yanks call hash # the pound symbol but it refers to weight from that old imperial/american system.

No you still get National Superannuation whether you are a pauper or a billionaire. The billionaire pays 33% tax on it & the pauper pays no tax.

In NZ the pension is called "National Superannuation" & everyone over 65 gets it. It is taxed so if you have a good income of around 100k your National Superannuation will be taxed at the top rate of 33%. If you have no other income the tax is either zero or minimal. Seems fair to me. I get NZ National Superannuation & so does my Australian wife as she lived there for 20 years. As I am non resident it is taxed at the top rate. In Australia our assets are too high so we don't qualify for any pension. I prefer the NZ system as I worked hard all my life & paid plenty of tax so reckon getting some back is fair. Here if you have done nothing & bludged of the system all your life you are rewarded with a full pension at 65. Where is the fairness in that.

I didn't get anything because I didn't put anything in. If I had I'd have made a claim & not wait for the government to do nothing. Two years ago there was $11.7 billion in lost Super according to the ATO, an average of 10k per person they have no address details for. Obviously some people don't know about the super that is theirs or don't care. Then there are plenty of employers who don't pay their employees super as well as their portion after deducting it from their wages, shut up shop or move somewhere else so the money never gets paid. Just another part of the superannuation disaster.