Litespeed

There is a charity run by some Australians in Africa that provides solar powered lights to provide light at night in homes. This means the children can study and improve their education and opportunities in life. The biggest side effect is a huge reduction in serious burns and deaths from kerosene lanterns that when knocked over start fires that maim and often kill. It also means that precious money is spent on food and schooling instead of paying for kerosene. A really simple and cheap solution that can make a massive difference

The turn of last century meant when we went from the 19th to the 20th century- ie 1900. Theses law volumes detail all english law and its precedence up to that point- all the way back to before Henry the Viii and do include sections on the colonies and such early ideas as the Magna Carta.

I do not think it is only suspension they are backwards in but specs, engineering and over the top pricing. A case in point is the Prado vs ML series Mercedes the Merc is much better finished, comes with much higher specs and is a lot cheaper. The Prado is left for dead in towing braked weight of 3000kg merc vs only 2500 kg Prado. The Prado is running a old school noisy and fuel hungry motor with much less torque and power. Meanwhile the Merc is a absolute pleasure to drive and tow, quiet and gets a genuine excellent 6lt/100km at 120km/h on a trip. It is a easy one to two generations older in tech and abilities but they have the hide to charge more for it. Maybe Aussies are religious about their SUV and reality has nothing to do with their choices? I do know about the above example as my brother has the ML and absolutely loves it- he tows a big boat on weekends. His mates have Prados and regret it. Especially when services come around or the injectors need doing- that costs a arm and two legs. It just makes no sense. Toyota (toymota) are the modern GM- all marketing over substance and gullible Aussies believe them. Some will say -but the Prado has tougher suspension and wheels- yes but 98 % of owners will never get to use the difference and all the rest of the time the Merc or BMW etc will handle like a car and be far safer and in the bad event of a crash- you might live to walk away.

And don't forget this weeks winge about welfare costs yet again. They always quote the overall $170 billion but go after the unemployed which is only 12% of that and mugs think they are all just bludgers. But we know who the real bludgers are ........

Yes Nev, I think they had a special plan ....such Cunning stunts.

The greens are not completey anti Natural Gas- they know it has its place and is much better than coal. But they are anti CSG as are farmers because of the massive risks for short term gain of a resource we already have in spades. I could have quoted lots of sources- the Australia Institute is a credible source that goes to great lengths to attribute its information. I do not have a problem with farmers getting the rebate- they feed us.

I agree, The destruction of the local motor industry was vandalism writ large and all for a small amount of money given the multiplier effect it has on the economy. Complete stupidity by Abbott and Joe. Subsidies well used are a good thing to develop and maintain industries where appropriate- there is no such thing as free markets. The car industry subsidy was a small investment- just look at the cost of all those lost jobs, lost taxes, lost skills and manufacturing. And it was a export industry as well.

That would be real easy but i will just skim the surface- keep in mind that the current and many past governments love to confuse the issue by claiming weird accounting practices when doing the national accounts to smokescreen things a bit or just funding groups like Geosciences Australia and not saying that is a subsidy but important government work. Of they claim it is ok that miners do not pay taxes on diesel because they do not use roads- miners use the infrastructure of the country that is meant to be paid for by taxes. Often we even make special infrastructure for their use even. Australian coal, oil and gas companies receive $4b in subsidies: report Why do we subsidise industry? | The Australia Institute There are dozens of others and the total number depends on how far you can dig and what you count and does not include the massive tax dodges they use to get out of paying tax or the sweetheart deals on resource rent and royalties. Some say any industry subsidy is wrong- I disagree but it must be for the substantial benefit of the current and future generations- not to prop up old tech that is dirty. And is doing its best to remove jobs and avoid its social contract.

And do not forget we subsidize the fossil fuel industry billion dollars a year directly and indirectly. And they still rarely pay any tax when the make billions. It would often be cheaper for us to not mine it at all.

Damn you Bex, You are obviously enjoying your time in China way too much

I would be very careful taking anything from that website with any credence- I have no real view on Tesla. That is a website by Edison Tech. Who unsurprisingly is from the people who gave us Thomas Edison - the very bloke that used fraud to try and put down Tesla to gain advantage in American power. Who was a specialist in buying up patents and borrowing(kind word) of everyones developments and claim them as his own. He is celebrated in the US as the inventor of the modern electric age- that is more homespun revisionist history and team america bull than anything. America is full of so called non profits that really are just lobby machines for their sponsor in this case General Electric. A bit like believing the bible

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.