Litespeed

You do not need a huge head level for it to work. And don't forget that the vast majority of Australia's population lives on the coast of the eastern seaboard which is adjacent to the Great Divide or they live within 100kms of this mountain range which runs the length of the all that population. I was wrong about the UNSW link for the Prof. he has been at ANU for a long time now. Professor Andrew Blakers - Engineering & Computer Science - ANU https://eng.anu.edu.au/research/energy And here is a good podcast Pumped hydro for the cloudy windless days and nights For mass industrial needs as a transition you can use gas cogeneration plants which make industrial heat, steam and power. Their are quite a few smaller scale ones at mines that will be closing in the near future and will be up for grabs cheap. We now have some major industrial users around the world decoupling from the grid with solar cells on the roof of their plants and battery. Keep in mind that the biggest users are aluminium refining which is incredibly energy hungry and use a substantial amount of the nations power- they are expected to either close completely or will be retrofitted with much newer and cheaper to run systems. We already have some remote farmers that have changed to pure solar and batteries as it was cheaper to do than the cost of just diesel for their generators over only 4 years. Then they are having free power- minus minimal maintenance. The future will be renewables not if but when. If only the politicians would stop listening to the coal and gas lobby to hobble all new technologies. AS a aside- the solar homes scheme has not really cost anything on power bills that is all manufactured balance sheet fraud. Until recently the power companies did not even have to pay for any power put back into the grid- they got it free and the government paid for it. But the used the so called subsidy as a excuse to push up bills.

Well said. We must remember a huge amount of our electricty bill is the distribution cost of sending the power huge distances over expensive and now so called "gold plated" infrastructure. It is incredibly inefficient and expensive. The more they spent on poles and wires the more the regulator allowed them to charge- so they invested on it for no actual gain except the ability to charge a hell of a lot more. Without this stupidity our bills may be 50% lower. Add in the fact we privatised so instead of cost recovery plus a small dividend to government we have dozens of layers of corporate greed all wanting a big slice of profit and holding a gun to our heads to get it. We should have some of the cheapest power in the world even with our current systems- instead we are one of the most expensive.

No I disagree. The major stuff up was deciding to close your next cleanest option and mothball it- the gas generator station. Which was disassembled and the turbines sent to Dubai? for rebuilding. Gas can be turned on and off as needed. Coal besides being very dirty can not. A lot of these so called energy intensive operations are actually been done in other countries with new generation plants that are far more efficient and cheaper to run than the 50 year old plants we had here. So pollution wise it is a winner. Same with power stations- sure some countries are still building them but they are using the most efficient type possible to get bang for buck. Our old ones were dirty even by the standards or the time they were built.

I hate to shock you all but bugger it. WE have all the technology we need for endless power supply to meet our current needs and not burn a single piece of coal, gas or even bother going nuclear which is the most expensive option possible. No country has ever done nuclear without massive hidden subsidy and massive clean up costs. And after 60 plus years of nuclear power we still have no proper waste disposal. So what is this amazing tech- it is called solar. And before anyone runs for the door screaming- Phil is off his meds again.................... WE can easily produce all the solar we need including industrial loads and that includes during the night. Yes we can invest in traditional battery storage or saline pond battery tech or Tesla power walls. But everyone seems to want to go the biggest cost, most private profit method such as these. They are in most cases just super expensive ways of storing energy when compared to tech that is as old as the romans or older even. I was listening to one of the smartest solar guys in the world on ABC one night- a professor from UNSW solar team (world leaders for over 30 years) and his super cheap solution for storage. It is ........................WATER. All you do is have a smallish dam on a hill and a nearby solar plant with a dam. Any excess power generated is used to pump the water up to the dam. Small town sized systems are now becoming quite common and typically produce a heap more power during the middle of the day than can be used to allow for the needs later in the day when everyone comes home etc. All excess power is pumped up the hill into the dams- and allowed to flow with gravity through small micro turbine water wheels to generate power when needed. That can be at night, cloudy day, whenever needed. WE are not talking massive dams either, he used examples that most farmers are used to in scale for the farm. He has run the economies on this and the scale issues and it works extremely well from very small scale to mega scale for a large city. It is all about making the power where it is going to be used or nearby and scaling for the actual needs. Your town growing? Just ad some more solar and build another couple of small dams. Not big mega dollar dams - little ones. With the exception of towns that are completely flat this works very well. For the flatlands other systems can complement it. The cost of building such systems is a mere fraction of traditional dirty power and running costs are only very minimal maintenance, and the water can also be used for other normal purposes- just be waterwise and not stupid with it. Meanwhile in Britain they are building a new Nuclear plant to make only 7% at best of their power needs- cost approx $60 billion AUS and growing by the day. Last time I heard the poms used a lot less power per capita than we did. And then that plant will cost many billion a year to run and at least $10-15 billion to decomission and cleanup at the end of its life cycle at todays dollars. Anyone who is pushing the no solar storage line is having us on. They either have not looked into it properly or have a vested interest. Please find your closest LNP politician and place them on a ants nest.

The big chevron et al projects might sound impressive, but bar some small trickle of local jobs and nut and bolts- almost all that investment was spent overseas and imported here and all probably imported tax free. Then the government did bullshite sweet deals that insure they will never pay any royalties or tax to the feds for about 30 years. All at the same time as we get priced out of our own gas. We probably we be better off it if stayed in the ground. Stupidly we do not have a federal gas reserve like the USA does- this would ensure that our prices would be very cheap and foster local production. Any discussion of such a reserve is always canned but vested interests. It is always the same- Donald Horne was right - Lucky country my ass.

We could always follow the "logic" of Turbs argument to its logical conclusions - It should be unlawful for society to accept children being brought up parents or carers of only one sex So..... We make it illegal to get divorced or live separated We force widows and widowers (me) to immediately remarry We ban all same sex instituitions such as segregated schools especially religious boarding schools (this one I would happily agree with) We make the number one priority of childrens welfare that two people of different sex are the parents and any other factor is secondary and of little importance Same sex couples should by law be banned of having animals incase they sodomise them (Cory "Barnyard" Bernardi) Sorry but life is not black and white nor is simplistic. We can not licence procreation nor should we licence bringing up children. The anti marriage equality arguments are so very similar to those used to separate unmarried mothers and aboriginal families from their children- the stolen generations. And have no more credence or morality, ethics or actual care about those involved. It is just prejudice and ideology

Does that mean you have reached Puberty? I change mine often from old and greying before my time to caveman hairy and still greying

Sorry I didn't have a camera but saw a classic that made me laugh the other day. It was a motorbike with a "Baby on Board" sticker on a wooden board strapped to the back of his rack. And a doll baby strapped to the board. I laughed for ages

But the increase in life expectancy has thrown a major spanner in the works. It was not too bad when you rarely had people live past 50, but we all seem to want to and a lot will be consuming at 90.

You are a wise old bugger at times Phil

I told you mate- traditional remedies is called for. Go get a stake, some birch and flammable liquid or off to the potting shed

Bloody Mirrors- should be banned. Make me look ancient All Red sees is a old codger And poor bloody Phil's face exploded I say we revolt and break the bastards with a Black cat

Phil- Don't worry about the shed floating away mate. Just tie the wifey to it and all will work out in the wash. I absolutely love a big storm except when on a motorbike or in the air. A great Boom Crash Opera

Mate it is not a stupid statement- keep calm and have a bex, cup of tea and a lie down. It is rather simple- as Prime Minister he proposes to cabinet a new law (which is written by parliamentary legal staff and the attorney generals department)- cabinet approves it and then it goes through to the lower house of parliament. The government of the day (lead by same Prime Minister John Howard) is in control of the lower house (otherwise it is called the opposition and has no control) It is only the government which can effectively put forward legislation in the lower house, as they are the government and the lower house is the house of government. The lower house can debate all it wants but as long as the government has the numbers (ie is the government) it passes legislation in the lower house. John Howard ruled with a iron fist and no one dared to not tow the party line of what he wanted- unlike the current LNP rabble. John wanted and John got- always. Then it goes to the Senate- the house of review. Here the government may or may not have numerical control (Howard actually did in his last term). They can argue all they like and kick it back to the house of reps with some changes or vote for a inquiry or pass it through or refuse in which case the government sends it back again to them. If that happens twice it can be used as a trigger to desolve both houses of parliament called a double dissolution and a complete election for all members of the senate plus the lower house is called. That is what just happened here- Turnbull rolled the dice and lost everything bar his torn shirt. One man can ensure the passing of a piece of legislation if he is infact the Prime Minister and holds firm control of his party- John Howard did it all the time. He is as Prime Minister by virtue in charge of the lower house and as such the leader of the government of the day. All that is then required is for it to pass the senate- which unless the major opposition party (in that case Labor )has a majority by itself in the senate- it is powerless to stop. That is where minority senators come in. At no point in any of this does it require the asscent of the Labor party to make legislation lawful or any non government party or independant. It is purely down to numbers on the day of the vote. And when Howard had a majority in both houses- nothing could stop him putting anything he liked into law except a revolt from his own side or plain common sense- neither of which appeared likely. Once it has passed both houses all that then happens is the Governor General signs it and it becomes law. Done and dusted. At no point in any of this can a strong Prime minister be stopped doing their thing as long as they control the numbers in the lower house and can sway enough for a majority of those voting on the day in the upper house. You could have 140 senators but if only 10 are present and 6 are government- bingo it becomes law.( a extreme example) QED For the above to not be true- it assumes that the government of the day does not in fact have confidence in its Prime Minister- for it is he/she that calls the shots. To not approve what they propose in cabinet is the kiss of death to your political career- that is why the are BOSS.

I actually have four very heavy volumes of English law written at the turn of last century and even it is not real supportive of the power of god.

"Grace of God" What a load of codswallop- it just means whilst she continues to breath. Ever heard the old saying " here i go by the grace of god"? It only has some meaning in the sense that under british law royalty must be a member of the church of england to be head of state. Which was purely a measure to stop the catholics getting back in control after the debacles of Henry VIII and bloody Queen Mary. Our Constitution bars explicitly any religious test for been a officer of the crown, which also includes any employee of the comonwealth Lizzy has and the english parlaiment and the Privvy council long since been written out of our affairs. It is merely a figure head and has no legal effect. Lizzy did not approve of Kerr sacking the Whitlam government- it was all done on Kerrs back and she had nothing to do with it. Nor could she have stopped it. Just as she could no longer send us to fight for Queen and Country. We have to be dickheads and volunteer our forces instead. It is only a vestige of the old commonwealth as we have no president to sign into effect our laws

It was Howard that put the law through cabinet, then the lower house and was not stopped by the senate- which is entirely different to been approved by Labor. Our constitution does not have anything to do with god and actually prohibits it. It is merely case law that has agreed to by judges that traditionally have been conservative christians. A lot of our governments laws and spending programs would not stand up to consistent onslaught over the matter of religion and its role in society. It is only by very narrow definitions of case law that so far the high court has not thrown the religious chaff out completely. A case in point is school chaplains- it failed to be illegal narrowly on a technical point of case law and new legislation was hurriedly made to try and provide support. A sustained attack on this case law would eventually win. And the government would no longer be able to fund anything to do with religion. And the country would be far better for it.

Not quite Bex, The referendum has no effect on this. It was Howard who actually changed the marriage act to specifically say "between a man and woman". Hence parliaments ability to just change the law back and be done with it. But cowardice and christian bullyboys will have none of that. Howard knew there was nothing stopping someone actually having same sex marriage under the law and constitution as it stood. It only required bureaucrats to allow it or a appeal to the high court to enforce it.

My bathroom is very retro.................. I just look in the mirror

Hang on to them They are retro they is

Given that the Christian lobby are to get the lions share of 7.5 million to fight against the same sex marriage plebisite, it would appear we are definitely a Christian semi democracy

Anyone notice that one of the biggest neighbors in Asia is vastly catholic and are currently running state sanctioned death squads to purge the country of "drug dealers and users". Thousands are been murdered and no proof is necessary just a rumour will do. Or someone disliked for any reason. The Philipines is hurtling down a very deadly path.

Overnight another leading doctor in the Polio program was shot dead by gunmen on a motorbike in Pakistan.

As a interesting aside, to show the potential of viral warfare or just our luck running out check the series called the "Last Ship" Watch The Last Ship FREE!! A very large % of the world is wiped out and yes some see it as Gods work.

Should sell it to a swingers club