octave

Malcolm Roberts, you must be joking. You only have to read Roberts comments on vaccination to realize he is a bit of a tosser.

Does CSIRO count as merely public opinion?

We joined a community garden a few months but until the other day, we have not been directly involved. This vegetable garden is on land made available by the council and maintained by volunteers. It was great to meet people of all ages but especially some older folks who were positive and enthusiastic. We can go around any time and pick vegetables and anyone can even non-members. We ended up with more tomatoes than we knew what to do with.

Coffee has many health benefits (but not so much if it is instant or loaded with milk and or sugar.) https://health.clevelandclinic.org/the-health-benefits-of-coffee Health benefits seem to peak at 3 to 4 cups per day. Coffee contains phenolic acids which are very good. Believe it or not, coffee is high in dietary fibre. Most of these benefits are lost in instant coffee as well as taste.

I think there are differences between Biden and Trump when it comes to gaffes. There is no doubt that Biden is not as sharp as he was back when he was VP. It does happen to us all. Trump does seem to try to say that he "interposed" Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi. Hilarious for two reasons, firstly what is the point, and how is this political genius secondly he clearly does not know what interpose means. Another key difference is that as far as I can see Biden takes advice from those around him whereas Trump seemingly does not. Having said that it seems absurd that crusty old blokes are running the show. As a 62-year-old I think that many issues are not so much for me to decide but are more for those who will live with the consequences good and bad.

Here are a few of my pics from some of the great vantage points around Welly Airport

I don't have much of an opinion on this however at 1:06 you can't see the wind sock anymore. I think it would be hard to know what the wind was doing at that instant. It is a very gusty place surrounded by extremely tall hills.

I have flown in and out of Welly Airport probably 9 or 10 times. Fortunately, it has always been reasonable weather (so far). I know my son has had more than one flight diverted after a couple of attempts to land. it is a great airport for plane watchers and photographers. On the east side of the strip is a great lookout on top of a very steep hill. On the west side is a cafe we have been to many times called "Spruce Goose". It has a raised outdoor dining area that looks over the runway, great for a bit of lunch and plane spotting. i have many interesting photos. It does tend to be very gusty at time and in nearly every direction the wind is coming over very steep hills.

I buy online with PayPal if possible and CC otherwise. When I buy with Paypal the money comes from my CC anyway but I have found that if I don't get what I paid for I can take it up with Paypal and if they don't give me a refund I could take it up with the CC company. I have found both to be pretty good with refunds. A few years back we ordered some flowers for my mother interstate. They turned up 3 days late and pretty much dead. When we looked at reviews for this company and found that it had a poor reputation (always check reviews first) We complained to the florist who didn't want to know. We then complained to the CC company and got a full refund We have had 3 or 4 similar events.

I don't even know what my CC interest rate is. I use it for everything and pay it off every Friday, I choose to take reward points in Bunnings vouchers. I get around 4 of these a year. So I get $200 a year in Bunnings vouchers, I pay $50 a year for the card and I pay no interest because I don't go longer than a week without paying it off. My CC company probably hates me.

Fully Charged is a great YouTube channel to keep up with the latest tech

it is interesting to look at the playlist from this YouTube channel. Certainly seems to have an agenda and judging by the titles of its other videos perhaps a little sensationalist. https://www.youtube.com/@the_best_car_content/videos

There is something pretty weird about that video. The narration seems very oddly written. Why the constant reference to Ford? I think the bottom line is if you don't think EVs are any good then don't buy one. If they are the disaster you believe them to be then sales naturally reduce and EVs will disappear.

Red I would agree that there would be little point for you. I am sort of in the same position although I do have solar. Since retirement, I just don't do enough KMs to justify a new car of any sort. I do get do drive one for a couple of weeks a year when on holiday and it is immensely enjoyable to drive. I may consider it when my present car dies. My son's girlfriend has a BYD Atto 3 and she seems to like it.

Adoption of anything new tends to follow the "adoption curve" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_life_cycle I believe we are most likely well into the early adopters stage. There is a point between early adopters and the early majority known as the chasm. This is where the market from innovators and early adopters has been satisfied but not enough early majorities are ready to buy. We built an off-grid solar house in 1990. The technology was pretty primitive compared to today. In the early 80s we were early adopters of the home PC . This adoption curve can be applied to just about any new tech. The innovators and early adopters are extremely important. I suspect that many people looked at early aircraft and scoffed, but there were enough innovators and early adopters to drive the technology forward. At the moment I would suggest that the EV could still be characterized as an enthusiast's car. I do believe though we are on the cusp of breaking through to the early majority buyers. Whatever the next few years hold I am pretty confident that cars will be driven by electric motors because the efficiency between a reciprocating engine and an electric motor is chalk and cheese (80% vs 20%) The question is how will we power those motors. At the moment we have battery and hydrogen fuel cell. Technology develops fast. The petrol car has come an amazing way since the first cars hit the roads. Whilst the modern petrol or diesel car is a modern marvel it has problems that are hard to solve. The fuel has to go through a costly and complex journey from the other side of the world and through an energy-hungry refining process and what comes out of the exhaust. Electric vehicles are versatile in that there are so many ways to generate electricity. I do sometimes wonder what we are actually arguing about here. It seems to have devolved into "EVs are sh1t" "No they aren't EVs are great" I don't usually post here in an EVangelical way. I nearly always post as a reaction to a statement I know to be suspect such as can/are EV batteries being recycled or reused, yeas they can and are. I would never suggest anyone rush out and buy an EV if it does not suit them. It would suit me except it is not economically viable at this point. This is changing as is the case with pretty much every piece of technology. People will often express concern about bans on the sales of new IC cars I think really they do not have much to worry about. If EVs are the disaster some people suggest then the chickens will come home to roost and cars will be bursting into flames everywhere the grid will be exploding etc. etc. etc. and those restrictions will probably never happen. I do believe that given the falling price of EVs (just look at the price reductions on Teslas) and competition that a ban wont be necessary because EV will be the cheaper choice. people will vote with their wallets.

Onetrack your post was mostly about EVs and batteries. As a car builder, Tesla is a little on the immature side. I am aware of some of the problems. My son owns a Tesla and is a car person. He finds some of the engineering absolutely brilliant and is left scratching his head as to why they made some of the engineering choices they made but he still loves it. This is not evidence that EVs are dumb and piston engines are the way to go for all eternity. Car companies often suck. Why are the anti-EV crowd frothing with excitement if an EV catches fire (often it is not actually an EV - Lutton?) but don't seem to express similar concern when it doesn't fit their culture war narrative? US probes Hyundai, Kia recall into 6.4 million vehicles over fire risks and for the record, these are NOT EVs For the record, if I were to buy an EV now ir would be a BYD or and MG like @kgwilson not a Tesla Now about those EV batteries going to landfill. This is the kind of progressive forward-thinking we need. Australian made second-life EV battery system to be tested on New Zealand grid

Whoah there this bold assertion needs a bit of evidence. Firstly why do you assert that the electronics that EV manufacturers use are cheap and shoddy? Please provide some evidence for this. As for batteries being toast after 10 years this is also a dubious claim. New Study: How Long Do Electric Car Batteries Last? How Long Do EV Batteries Last? New Research Suggests It's Way Longer Than You Might Think Electric Car Batteries Lasting Longer Than Predicted Delays Recycling Programs I could go on. Do you have intimate knowledge of Teslas construction methods? Are Teslas failing at a high rate? Are early Teslaa being scrapped at a great rate? What evidence is that they "do nothing to ensure that their EVs have a long lifespan." It sounds like you could give me some particular examples of inadequate parts etc. A YouTube channel I follow is Sandy Monro who tears down vehicles from many manufacturers and advises on how they can improve, You can watch him tearing down various Teslas. In the early days, he was pretty scathing but is impressed with how they are now manufactured. He will call out things he considers to be poor engineering Should we not recycle anything? Perhaps just dump everything in a landfill. I would not be surprised if landfill disposal was subsidized. There are successful recycling plants such as Redwood in the US. It is a fact that the components of batteries have some value and where there is value there is incentive. The crusty old EV haters will often say that the raw materials for EV and phone batteries etc will become scarce. This is where a circular economy comes in. A company like Tesla or any other EV company is only viable if it can build its own or source batteries from outside. It makes sense to get more recycling up and running or the business will fail due to materials shortages. You have suggested (incorrectly) that EV batteries only last 10 years. Given that EVs have only been sold in Australia for just a little over 10 years and in the early years sales figures were low, there is simply not the volume of clapped-out batteries to sustain the recycling industry. it is somewhat different in Europe the US and China. One of the biggest battery recycling plants in the US is up and running There is immaturity in EV recycling is mostly because of the lack of end-of-life batteries. Then there are second life uses. If you confidently assert that EV batteries are toast after 10 years then why are there examples of second-life projects? Even by your extremely pessimistic estimation of battery life, you must surely admit that there would be few batteries having reached total end of life. I would love to get my hands on one to use as a home battery but extremely hard to find. I suspect that for some of the anti-EV crowd, it has more to do with anxiety about change. Look if EV are just a totally crap idea they will fail to replace IC cars. If EVs are all failing at 10 years (they are not) and if landfill are overflowing with old dead batteries people will reject them. I do not think that will happen but I guess we will just have to revisit this topic every year or so for the next ten years to see what happens.

People of course are entitled to their own opinions. The problem comes when people believe their opinions are facts. Truth is incredibly important. If someone says 100 EVs have caught fire in Australia this is not asserting an opinion but it is presenting a falsehood. As I have said many many times I don't care whether hate EVs and don't ever wish to drive one, that is totally fair enough they don't have to buy one. Red do you have an example of people denying someone's opinion?

Although there are quite a few errors and in fact, some of the assertions were actually changed in subsequent editions (see the video that KG posted) I do actually agree with the above statement. Pretty much the only reason I have not bought an EV is that my present car is old but in good condition for its age and but would probably not fetch much if I sold it. It would be foolhardy I think we could suddenly change the whole fleet in a short time. The change is slow. In 2034 with the present timetable, you will be able to buy a shiny new IC car (although I doubt it will be economical). Atkinson is right on that point. The model of changing a car (of any type) every 3 years is problematic Although of course if someone does change their EV after 3 years, it is not being scrapped but it becomes available on the used car market.

As I understand it the car has an inbuilt inverter. At this stage, Tesla vehicles do not support vehicle to load.

oops my bad https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/solar-panels-that-work-at-night-developed-at-stanford/

I think mining companies pay royalties to the government. Whether the amount is appropriate is another question (I don't know)

The team from the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering generated electricity from heat radiated as infrared light, in the same way as the Earth cools by radiating into space at night. Solar Panels That Work at Night Developed at Stanford