JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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I’m back home after four wonderful weeks in Western Australia.
The last four days of my four weeks away were spent on what is without doubt one of the World’s best train journeys, the 4352 Kilometre trip from Perth to Sydney on the Indian Pacific. There were five off train excursions, and the train experience itself was enough. Food was spectacular, accommodation tight, but hey, it’s a train, eh! Company, you get to meet so many people.
No internet connection for four days, and I didn’t miss a minute of that.
Whilst in Perth, one of my nieces showed me how to take a panoramic image with my Mobile Phone. So, standing on the mullock heap at Broken Hill I took a panoramic image of the train.
Two locomotives, and 27 carriages, and it was 630 metres long. In the main Season, its’ eight carriages longer, topping out at 800 metres plus in length, and The Ghan is even longer.
For the relatively flat section, Perth to Adelaide, they use one locomotive, and from Adelaide to Sydney, for the mountains in NSW, they add that second locomotive.
The link takes you to that panoramic image I took. The original image on the phone is around 9Mb, so it’s a big image. I can work it down with my image program (Adobe Elements 15) to 3MB, and I found a way to show it at my home site, so I can link it up here at Joanne’s site.
When you select the link and the image opens up, you’ll see a plus sign over the image. Click your mouse, and the full sized image opens, and you’ll see a scroll bar at the bottom of the image, just above your computer’s task bar.
Use that scroll bar to scroll right and left. At the far right of the image are the locomotives, and all the way left is the ‘back’ of the train. The city in the background is Broken Hill.
I’m detailing the whole WA experience at my home site, and I’ve got so much more to get done, hopefully a Post a day for the next ten to twelve days. I took around 600 or more images, So I can pick the best of them.
Link to Indian Pacific train image
My most recent Post will be about my trip to the Perth Mint, and the ‘live’ gold pour, and that gets posted at 2pm Eastern Standard Time. It also mentions the One Tonne gold coin with an image of that as well.
Tony.
430
Sounds wonderful. I took the bus from Margaret River to Perth (then Perth to Singapore to San Francisco to Denver).
90
Oh wow! I don’t mind a bus trip myself but would certainly be uncomfortable on a bus all the way to San Francisco.! 🤓🤓🤓
200
Great Photo of the Train TonyfromOz
I have stood on that Mullock Heap a number of times, with Mining Engineer Brother in Law living in Broken Hill, and stopping point on numerous across OZ 4WD Trips
140
Been on the Indian Pacific a couple of times. Perth to Sydney and Sydney to Perth.
Will try the Ghan and the Great Southern next.
Just have to check my bank balance first.
41
True, it is expensive, but sooooo well worth it.
You step onto the train in Perth, and off the train in Sydney.
The ONLY money you need to shell out is if you purchase anything during four of the five off train excursions. With those excursions, the one at Cook in the middle of the night, and the Seppeltsfield Barossa tour are one offs, but at Kalgoorlie, Broken Hill and the Blue Mountains, you get a choice of four or five different tours.
Accommodation, all meals, all off train tours, everything in the one cost.
If you want to do the Ghan, then I was advised to board the train at Darwin for the trip South to Adelaide, as it’s an extra day and night aboard, and one extra off train tour.
Tony.
70
Tony,
Nice to see you are enjoying your travels – the guy at the mint pouring the gold is a comedian . Did you buy any gold ?
20
Nicely done, Tony. Thanks.
What is the object at the right bottom corner by the large rock?
60
It could be a light, but this is mere speculation….
40
John,
on top of the mullock heap, (which is totally solid) there are two structures, built by the NSW Government. One is a hoped to be restaurant, but evidently, they’ve found it hard to get an owner, as it’s quite seasonal there and probably mainly catered to tourists.
The second structure is a modern(ish) memorial. It’s the Line Of Lode miner’s memorial, (built in conjunction with that restaurant) to commemorate the miners lost at Broken Hill.
As James mentioned, that object you mentioned is a pretty large spotlight, and is used to illuminate that memorial at night.
Tony.
70
Thanks. Google Earth shows 300 acers solar panels west of there. an interesting place.
From me to there: 8,145.07 mi (13,108.22 km)
30
DeepMind has detailed all the ways AGI could wreck the world
DeepMind says AGI could arrive in 2030, and it has some ideas to keep us safe.
As AI hype permeates the Internet, tech and business leaders are already looking toward the next step. AGI, or artificial general intelligence, refers to a machine with human-like intelligence and capabilities.
If today’s AI systems are on a path to AGI, we will need new approaches to ensure such a machine doesn’t work against human interests.
Unfortunately, we don’t have anything as elegant as Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.
Researchers at Google DeepMind have been working on this problem and have released a new technical paper (PDF) that explains how to develop AGI safely, which you can download at your convenience.
It contains a huge amount of detail, clocking in at 108 pages before references. While some in the AI field believe AGI is a pipe dream, the authors of the DeepMind paper project that it could happen by 2030. With that in mind, they aimed to understand the risks of a human-like synthetic intelligence, which they acknowledge could lead to “severe harm.”
All the ways AGI could harm humanity
This work has identified four possible types of AGI risk, along with suggestions on how we might ameliorate said risks. The DeepMind team, led by company co-founder Shane Legg, categorized the negative AGI outcomes as misuse, misalignment, mistakes, and structural risks. Misuse and misalignment are discussed in the paper at length, but the latter two are only covered briefly.
70
Hymn,
“misuse, misalignment, mistakes”, yet no mention of misinformation, unless AGI pre-censored that negative outcome in anticipation…
ThoughtCrime by Go Ogle’s DeepMind®️?
90
I’m still waiting on that metric to be revised more in line with what we were 50 years ago rather than the soyboy loony-left clueless dumb bunnies we have now.
True AGI? Way closer than you think.
/before 2030
But the question is could we even recognise a non-biological intelligence that “thinks” in ways radically different to our own.
70
John,
AI is already having deleterious effects on human intelligence . Why bother thinking when you can have the “answer” instantly ? Google is both a noun and a verb…
80
So, according to egg-spurts does tv, smartphones, video games, the internet…
None of which are bad in themselves until elevated to one’s primary way of spending time.
10
Many Leftoids and others with TDS have mocked TRUMP for putting tariffs on uninhabited islands.
Is it so hard to understand the reason behind this?
The reason for putting tariffs on uninhabited islands is likely to avoid the possibility of exploiting loopholes by sending goods from those places tariff-free.
301
How would you redirect trade through Heard Island?
The locals are upset, they held a rally yesterday: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1595792463990-07008351a4fb
The truth is that some moron in the White House with no concept of geography used an AI to calculate the trade imbalance and AIs hallucinate.
225
Apparently, there is ‘trade’ but it is most likely accounting error:
“The export figures from Heard Island and McDonald Islands are even more perplexing. The territory does have a fishery but no buildings or human habitation whatsoever.
Despite this, according to export data from the World Bank, the US imported US$1.4m (A$2.23m) of products from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in 2022, nearly all of which was “machinery and electrical” imports. It was not immediately clear what those goods were. In the five years prior, imports from Heard Island and McDonald Islands ranged from US$15,000 (A$24,000) to US$325,000 (A$518,000) per year.”
215
The reason for putting tariffs on uninhabited islands is likely to avoid the possibility of exploiting loopholes by sending goods from those places tariff-free.
242
Simon cannot reason that some place with “no buildings or human habitation whatsoever” can supposedly manufacture “machinery and electrical” imports for the USA.
I have self suppressed comments about his intellectual capacity.
210
Like the huge shipping industry by flag of St Kitts and Nevis, Comoros, Palau and Tuvalu, and to a lesser extent Togo, Tanzania, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Sierra Leone.
https://shipbreakingplatform.org/issues-of-interest/focs/
20
Not forgetting the $60 million AUD from Heard Island fishing that ends up in high-end restaurants in the USA and 20 other countries, processed by Australian company Austral Fisheries.
Did TDS-Simon miss that?
180
Since we started shipping rubbish around for recycling, trade statistics lost all logic
10
Oh Simple Simon, that is the level of (un) Critical Thinking that would have the trade on the London Metal Exchange floating up and down the Thames in multiple mega-tonne loads…
Daily
60
David,
I suspect the tariffs are intended to devalue the dollar and reshore manufacturing . The biggest problem the USA faces at the moment is the national debt and devaluing the dollar will help. Trump has had to refinance debt before and is savvy on its methods . Its a high stakes gamble , and the result may not be known in Trumps tenure .
81
And get participants (Mexico, Canada, China,..) in the slaughter of 100,000 young Americans a year by fentanyl to cease and desist. This is not only a national tragedy on an unprecedented scale but a loss of economic strength and miliary strength. And that is part of the intention. Along with pushing abortion. Undermining the US socially, militarily and economically seems to be the universal objective and part of the Art of War in a nuclear age. The idea that America can do to others even half of what they are doing to America is a real shock. America has been everyone’s patsy, but no longer.
71
I have no problem with that sentiment but why are all other nations being slugged, we have nothing to do with it.
10
No nation has a tariff higher than they are changing and have been charging on US goods and services. Generally half. So why are you complaining? Is any country entitled to a free ride?
10
The Trump administration has answered that.
Australia’s dishonest media conceal that answer, substituting their opinion that “it’s all insane, it’s a dumpster fire”; an approach that contributes to the fear and uncertainty ailing our stock markets at the moment.
Australia has been braying its free market credentials to all the world. The USA claims we are hypocrites.
Their argument is that the functional effect of the GST vs American taxes, is that if an American company builds, say, a caravan, and tries to sell it in Australia, the final sales price must include both American taxes and Australian GST. Whereas if an Australian company tries to sell a caravan in the USA, they get a GST rebate, thus the final price includes no U.S. taxes and no Australian taxes. On the one hand the American manufacturers face a wall of taxes, on the other the Aussies have none, so they conclude this is unfair.
It’s a case that can be validly argued.
Our politicians and diplomats should be addressing that, publicly and diplomatically. Hypothetically, If we offered to reduce our GST rebate to the point where Aussie exporters pay the equivalent of US taxes, our treasury would be richer, and the companies would be competing on a level playing field, and the tariff could then be fairly cut. There are other plausible solutions. The only one that’s not plausible is the current frantic name calling, blame-casting undiplomatic hysteria.
Apropos of that hysteria, it’s worth noting that to this day, the shameless waste of space that is the backstabbing Malcolm Turnbull continues to be an undiplomatic embarrassment to the country, and a wrecker to its hope of rational solutions.
Note that the current formula the USA has used to determine the tariff rate is dissimilar to the justification for the tariff.
I can’t say of my own knowledge, but I have read the assertion that every AI asked, has come up with the same formula that they use. The writer then concludes that they must have gotten the formula from an A.I. and that A.I. is therefore running the country. They regard this as being self-evidently bad. I need more evidence than that. It certainly works to resolve stock market uncertainty caused by hysteria.
The other element of America’s claim against Australia is our beef bans on bio security grounds. These are perfectly valid grounds for such a ban, but it’s worth addressing what would be required to lift such a ban. For example, if they haven’t had a case of the disease in two decades, are we being reasonable? Hypothetically, would a requirement that all beef be tested be mutually acceptable? Probably not, but the current practice of declaring it to all be “insanity” is definitely the least rational of all options.
40
Is a 10% tariff on Australia likely to solve the fentanyl problem?
Not saying that Australia should freak out over 10% … it’s not much and it’s only what we already charge in GST … but regardless of that, it doesn’t seem closely related to drug imports.
10
The Fentanyl story is directed at countries which are complicit. For the rest it’s just a fair response to punitive one way tariffs. The EU has a 25% tariff in US cars. The US tariff was 5%
00
Yes, it’s intended to bring back US manufacturing but also bring back free trade, and it’s working.
Meanwhile:
25 Republican neocons and 25 Democrat neolibs join hands to sponsor bill that would impose whopping 500 percent tariff on any country purchasing Russian oil, gas or uranium. WWIII hangs in the balance
They introduced a bill proposing astronomical sanctions on Russia if it refuses to participate in further negotiations aiming for a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Ukraine. Russian leaders say such a deal is unacceptable because it would give Ukraine time to reorganize and rearm its military right when it’s on the brink of total defeat. No sane leader of any country in Russia’s position would agree to such a deal as the one being offered by Trump and Washington.
https://leohohmann.com/2025/04/03/50-senators-from-both-parties-line-up-behind-a-bill-that-would-punish-russia-for-not-agreeing-to-peace-deal-with-ukraine/#more-20716
Any country eh.
What about the EU buying Russian oil through “side channels” as they’ve been doing?
61
Regionally, we are sitting well tariff-wise.
An end to fast-fashion is not a bad thing really. Imagine if we can attract some textiles / clothing business?
Much nicer trade for young adults to go into than weapons or genetic medicines.
10
In more important tariff news, many Irish are happy to have a higher tariff in the EU than the UK.
Means that some of the invasion of tech and pharma companies (I think around 60% of their GDP is biotech these days) chasing tax breaks might pack up and go home.
Or at least head North – those guys could do with a boost anyway.
10
Tony’s train pic is amazing.
From Friday, did anybody else see the great white whale.
https://joannenova.com.au/2025/04/friday-103/#comment-2841004
It had a short run here in Novocastria.
30
Haven’t seen it but thanks for drawing our attention to it.
Looks like a great movie about an epic undertaking!
I’ll have to try and find it.
30
A special film and amazing seat of the pants adventure. Beautifully narrated and produced by Matt Dillon.
Another epic adventure was the Adams Family’s ‘Northern Safari’ I loved the windlass Keith makes to winch the Buick out of the creek.
It is the knowledge and ingenuity of this generation that exits our culture when success is determined as your abilty to fill in a grant application and not the knowledge to prepare a machine to cross an ocean or a desert as these people did.
51
Not are “far right conspiracy theory”, this is how young Chicomms think.
Sadly, many, if not most Australian Labor, Green and Teal politicians are more loyal to the Chicomms than Australia and would gladly roll over if the Chicomms invaded. Indeed, they would likely assist the enemy.
390
“The ancient Chinese Empire once went there.
Therefore, it belongs to China.”
Tell ’em we need to see proof.
140
We have proof they visited but a visit is not a claim.
60
I forget the title of the book that claimed that Chinese junks circumnavigated Australia, but folks found plenty of holes in the story. The book claimed that the junks moored in the Swan River in WA, totally ignoring the fact that there was a rock bar across the river mouth that made entry by anything bigger than a rowboat impossible.
80
“1421”
I found it interesting.
Cheers,
Dave B
30
Apparently Gavin Menzies book is deprecated by historians and the coins and statue are not conclusive evidence, so I stand corrected.
20
Or even proof that they were a seafaring nation. If they were they would also have discovered America before Chris so own that.
Was there a Chinese Galileo to understand the world and the need to go beyond knowledge?
20
Sinocentrism was and is a real thing. It is deeply ingrained into Chinese culture. This has been the case since ancient times.
As for Taiwan, the native people of Taiwan are not ethnicly Chinese. When Taiwan was awarded to the Japanese in 1895, the people looked to the Japanese as liberators. Then Chiang Kai-shek and the defeated KMT sought refuge there.
150
Despite the Left wanting Taiwan to fall to the Chicomms, the West cannot afford for that to happen due to them being the source of most of the advanced computer chips used by the West.
Frankly, I’m surprised that the Chicomms didn’t invade under the O’Biden regime. Thankfully they didn’t. They won’t dare do so under TRUMP.
110
The US Administration is encouraging Taiwan companies to move their chip factories to America and avoid draconian tariffs.
Assuming that happens, its reasonable to believe the US would then turn its back on Taiwan, allowing the mainland to take over the island within a few weeks.
22
To whom would America sell the product of it’s newly stolen chip industry? Europe couldn’t afford them because their manufacturing has been destroyed so the only market would be China and Russia.
OK, more than a little reductio ad absurdum there but Trump is being reckless.
12
In a geopolitical sense it would be safer for Taiwan to ignore US overtures and stay put, they are holding the cards.
30
There are an awful lot if islands between us and mainland China – I suppose they never set foot on them on the way to Australia.
80
“advocate the “annexation” of Australia based on similar arguments to those being applied against”..Greenland…
Annexation seems to be getting popular these days.
60
KP,
Judging on what has happened to the “countries” being currently “annexed” (Ukraine and Gaza) we should steer well away….
40
I heard the Sudetenland might be available again. Something about funding rearmament.
10
China’s answer in the Sthn Hemisphere to the US wish to acquire Greenland in the north?
41
You might be overreacting. After all 53% of Australian land legally belongs to the aborigines and sovereignty has not been ceded. And they nearly had legal control over the other half.
They could sell the whole place to China and retire somewhere else. I can just see an aboriginal millionaires community on the French Riviera or in Miami. With Welcome to Country ceremonies at the gate for a touch of home.
51
If only all of the pretend sovereignty was actually of benefit to Aboriginal people.
The entire Aboriginal industry is nothing but a bureaucratic money-go-round,
81
Now suppose the aboriginals came via China? Can we claim a slice of that then?
21
The best defence would be a population that is ungovernable.
Unfortunately, we showed in COVID we are weak and obedient, and that the cops will do whatever for whomever, as long as they get their lolly each month.
The compliance theorists are our biggest liability.
30
An even more unthinkable outcome than a Labor win in the next federal election is Greens/Teals having the balance of power.
Despite the date of the following article, I don’t think this is an April Fool’s joke. Adam Bandt is the joke.
170
Labor is delusional.
‘Taxpayers will contribute $4000 for an average household battery installation under a $2.3b election commitment by the PM, with Labor promising the policy will push electricity prices down for ‘everyone’. (Oz)
131
Electricity prices down by $275?
100
You bet. Have more trust in your elected representatives.
50
My quarterly bill!
50
There are about 9 million households in Australia.
I’m guessing the cost of a typical battery is $12,000 (let’s say) and that a vast majority of households don’t already have batteries.
So if the consumer contributes $4000 that means that the consumer/taxpayer has to contribute $8,000.
That means that our taxes will have to contribute $72,000,000,000 or $72 billion to this insanity (9 million X $8,000).
Is no politician sufficiently numerate to do such basic arithmetic?
Where do they get the $2.3 billion from?
210
Not all 9 million households will be able to make use of the subsidy. How many millions live in high rise apartments or rentals? Totally stupid idea to fool a few for a non problem.
160
According to the article in today’s The Australian, a typical home battery would cost $13,000 before subsidies. Sounds about right, assuming this cost includes installation and wiring to enable the system to still supply power when grid power is lost.
Think the cost was based on the 25% solar percentage having batteries added.
20
They hope that most of the voters are not sufficiently numerate.
“The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.”
— Frédéric Bastiat
10
Not one “journalist” asks why do we suddenly need batteries that need a subsidy? Why can i just have a wall outlet that provides reliable, affordable power. You know, like my parents had.
Instead they just help normalise Bowens energy lunacy.
250
Correct Yarpos, journalists strangely (or possibly not so strangely silent). Another question for journalists to ask on the public’s behalf, “since when did domestic power supply become the responsibility of the householder”.
90
The estimated costs of building a nuclear power plant vary from $14 billion to $30 billion.
About one-third of these costs are “indirect”, including the cost of land, licensing, engineering, construction, and other owner costs. Direct costs include the reactor and turbine equipment, as well as all other systems and equipment required to produce energy.
The table below shows a breakdown of costs to build a nuclear power plant*:
Factors Estimated Costs
Licensing and permits $700 million – $1.5 billion
Land $28 million – $60 million
Engineering $2.34 billion – $5.00 billion
Construction $1.48 billion – $3.18 billion
Reactor equipment $2.93 billion – $6.27 billion
Turbine equipment $2.45 billion – $5.25 billion
Structure and improvements $2.31 billion – $4.95 billion
Electric equipment $854 million – $1.83 billion
Heat rejection system $420 million – $900 million
Miscellaneous equipment $294 million – $630 million
Other costs $196 million – $420 million
*Costs in the table are calculated based on power plant capital investment cost estimates published by the Department of Energy and considering the reported costs of building new nuclear reactors by the Vogtle power plant in Georgia. Vogtle is the first and only nuclear power plant approved to be built in the US since the 1970s.
For example, the construction of the third and fourth reactors at Plant Vogtle in the United States, which began in 2009, was originally scheduled to start up in 2016 and 2017 at a cost of around $14 billion. However, they actually came online in 2023 and 2024, with the total cost of the project exceeding [ $30 billion].
50
Economics of Nuclear Power
– Nuclear power is cost-competitive with other forms of electricity generation, except where there is direct access to low-cost fossil fuels.
– Fuel costs for nuclear plants are a minor proportion of total generating costs, though capital costs are greater than those for coal-fired plants and much greater than those for gas-fired plants.
– System costs for nuclear power (as well as coal and gas-fired generation) are very much lower than for intermittent renewables.
-Providing incentives for long-term, high-capital investment in deregulated markets driven by short-term price signals presents a challenge in securing a diversified and reliable electricity supply system.
– In assessing the economics of nuclear power, decommissioning and waste disposal costs are fully taken into account.
– Nuclear power plant construction is typical of large infrastructure projects around the world, whose costs and delivery challenges tend to be under-estimated.
Assessing the relative costs of new generating plants utilizing different technologies is a complex matter and the results depend crucially on location. Coal is, and will probably remain, economically attractive in countries such as China and Australia, as long as carbon emissions are cost-free or not fully costed.
Gas is also competitive for base-load power in many places, particularly using combined-cycle plants. Nuclear power plants are expensive to build but relatively cheap to run.
The basic economics metric for any generating plant is the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE).
It is the total cost to build and operate a power plant over its lifetime divided by the total electricity output dispatched from the plant over that period, hence typically cost per megawatt hour.
On a levelized (i.e. lifetime) basis, nuclear power is an economic source of electricity generation, combining the advantages of security, reliability and very low greenhouse gas emissions.
51
Australia’s major exports in 2024 include iron ores and concentrates, coal, and petroleum gases, which together account for 62.6% of overall export sales.
Coal, solid fuels made from coal: Valued at $55.8 billion, a decrease of 13.1% from the previous year.
Petroleum gases: Valued at $46.9 billion, a decrease of 7.8% from the previous year.
Problem there is, that’s where Australia’s Tax Surplus (the one spent by Labor Albo/Chalmers Economics/Blackout Bowen – Just throw it away at the Wind Renewables) was/is coming from
– Meanwhile Countries with Brains
South Korea has been reducing its imports of coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) by increasing its reliance on nuclear power.
Between 2019 and 2024, nuclear power generation in South Korea expanded by 29%, from 146 terawatt hours (TWh) to 189 TWh, which allowed utilities to reduce coal-fired power output by 26% and still elevate overall electricity supplies by 6% during that same period.
Over the first quarter of 2025, South Korea’s imports of thermal coal were down 23% from the same quarter a year ago, while LNG imports were down 16%.
In 2024, South Korea was the world’s fourth-largest importer of thermal coal and third-largest importer of LNG, but this trend is reversing as nuclear power’s share of the country’s electricity generation has surpassed that of coal and gas-fired plants for the first time.
With four additional reactors under construction, nuclear power’s role in South Korea’s energy mix is expected to continue growing.
South Korea’s shift towards nuclear power is part of a broader strategy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and cut emissions.
Despite these long-term goals, the immediate impact of increased nuclear power generation has been a significant reduction in coal and LNG imports, demonstrating the potential for nuclear power to displace costly and high-polluting fuels from power production.
50
And a nuclear plant could last 90 years, whereas a coal plant about half that.
Offshore wind ‘farms’ about 15 years at best. Onshore wind ‘farms’ less than 30 years (very generously) even though many are ‘upgraded’ after 9 to 16 years.
It just came to me that ‘farms’ refers to the Tax ‘farmers’ of the old regime in France. Most of them got a short sharp refusal after The Revolution.
50
Well, we know our place in the world.. Countries building nuclear power stations now-
China 25
India 7
Turkey 4
Egypt 4
Russia 4
South Korea 2
Bangladesh 2
Japan 2
UK 2
Ukraine 2
Argentina, Brazil, France, Iran, Slovakia, all 1
Its hard to find out who is doing them all, but Russia is doing 19 of them-
‘at the beginning of 2024, Rosatom is constructing 19 nuclear power units at 7 nuclear power plants in 6 countries: 4 each in Turkey, Egypt, China, India, two in Bangladesh and one in Iran. By 2030, almost all of them should be completed,’
“Leningrad phase II- Total project cost was estimated at $6.6 billion”
Leningrad 2-Unit 3 Type-VVER V-491 PWR Output 1101 Construction start 2024-03-14
Leningrad 2-Unit 4 Type-VVER V-491 PWR Output 1101 Construction start 2025-03-20
So $US6.6billon buys you 2200MWe
Even if we go nuclear, the cost of being America’s lapdog will cripple us compared to what others are paying.
40
Ozzie,
We have the ideal site ready for it in Victoria – where we used to have the Yallourn power stations . The grid is already set up , cooling is already there and a workforce who have worked with turbines . Just have to keep the CMFEU and DEI out of it …
60
Did you mean Hazelwood? The station at Yallourn still seemed to be there the last time we headed to East Gippsland, in February. There is a huge area of bare earth at the site of Hazelwood.
20
And the transmission infrastructure which has to be built for wind and solar but never costed.
10
There’s plenty of sites … Playfield in SA … Liddell in NSW.
You could even potentially use the old turbines is you were really trying to save a buck, although those turbines at Liddell have earned their retirement.
10
So the Labor Party discards the RepuTex cost modelling that provided the $275 cost saving, yet embarks on another cost modelling that claims that a battery subsidy will somehow save us money. Absolutely delusional.
100
Imagine thinking its a great election vote winner to say you will get a subsidy, paid for with your tax dollars, if you spend your after tax dollars on a battery, to allegedly “save money” on energy costs inflated by The Governments “renewables” insanity.
So much winning.
50
Great a ‘Bomb’ (stored energy) in every house to go with the DC current of a welder on your roof and in your ceiling. No Fireman will be dumb enough to go anywhere near one of these homes unless the bomb can be defused and the source of the DC current isolated.
Like an Electric Vehicle, you stay away until the thing has stopped burning.
30
“taxing billionaires and mining companies to pay for its huge spending agenda will drive away investment, cost Australian jobs and ultimately fail to raise the revenue it claims, ”
Sounds like a great argument for less and less taxation raising more and more money until we hit zero percent when the Govt gets it all!
60
A motherhood statement but if posters here are typical the real mood is “anyone but the unaparty” ie the Liberals.
40
If that concept is followed, we will never remove the parties that are wrecking Australia with their stupid energy policies.
20
So the only way to remove the ones wrecking the country is NOT to vote for their opposition. Did I read that right?
20
No. Fragmenting the vote by voting for minor parties, even if their ideas are good, will unfortunately dilute the main aim, and that should be to remove the Labor Party, Greens and Teals from govt, so that Australia can move forward with proper energy policies.
10
I agree. Did I misread your last post?
Libertarians scare me a little, their home page is full of motherhood statements but there is no policy. I asked and was not surprised that they are all for legitimising drugs. I listen to styxhexenhammer666 [libertarian] for electoral analysis but would never vote for his ilk. Hell no, you never know if he’s been on the ‘shrooms.
20
Perhaps I misread yours. I used to choose my own candidates, but with the emergence of the Teals and the rise of the Greens, I’ve realised that, perhaps reluctantly, I now have to forgo a “keep em honest” approach and vote as directed. Would like to see better local candidates though – the last local state one was useless. Spoke to him at a shopping centre and quickly realised that he didn’t know anything.
10
“that should be to remove the Labor Party, Greens and Teals from govt, so that Australia can move forward with proper energy policies.”
No no! The better way is to vote for them, put them in power, have them ruin the place so EVERYONE votes them out next time and they never get voted back in! This mediocre swamp will slowly drag us under without most people noticing, we need to crash the place so fast that no-one can avoid seeing it.
The Uniparty setup is designed for THEM to crush US, not each other, and this endless distraction over who to vote for is working exactly as it was designed to!
00
A very bad joke.
10
Adam Bandt, Australia’s next Deputy Prime Minister. Albo won’t stand a chance of reeling in his ambitions. Nightmare territory.
171
Leftoids who hate Elon Musk should realise he wasn’t born rich.
In the early days of SpaceX he nearly went bankrupt and had to borrow money from a friend to pay his home rent.
But Elon never gives up, he keeps trying and he learns from every failure.
And his hard work and determination made him the world’s richest man and he is democratising space, and bring free speech to the world through X and Starlink among many other achievements.
160
There was a good article on Musk in the NY Times during the weekend. Most of his political views are inherited from his grandfather, who was kicked out of the US because of is advocacy for Technocracy. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/opinion/elon-musk-doge-technocracy.html
221
Notice how the billionaire heros of the Left are advocates of censorship, expensive “green” energy, compulsory injection of experimental “vaccines”, synthetic foods (meat), insect consumption, violent riots, restrictions on freedom, reduction in the standard of living of non-Elites, and love flying around the world in their private jets etc.?
261
I think you should check those facts Simon.
As a Leftist, you would no doubt believe everything far Left oriented Goolag AI tells you.
I used the Goolag search term:
“was elon musks father kicked out of the us” without quotes.
Goolag AI says:
In any case, what you and the article says makes no sense.
Why would someone get kicked out of the US for a non-violent political opinion? It’s a free country.
The article you quote seems to be another pathetic and desperate lie by the Left to harm pro-US and pro-Western conservatives.
170
David, Simon stated elons grandfather was kicked out of the USA, you searched for the history of his father being kicked out, perhaps you should be more accurate in your searching before playing the “I will bully them until they stop posting game’
Happy to be corrected
Regards
56
Well, who knows?
I did a “Deep Search” in Elon’s Grok.
It claimed to search extensively and wrote at length quoting sources near far and wide.
It concluded:
>Based on the available evidence, Errol Musk was not kicked out of the USA, as there is no record of him ever being there. His life and activities are well-documented in South Africa and nearby regions, with no indication of US involvement. This conclusion is drawn from a comprehensive review of biographical sources, media interviews, and public records, all of which align in excluding any US connection for Errol Musk.
30
Oops, don’t let it go to your head Simon. I meant to give you a red tick. Please cancel that green one.
61
Is that the same NY Times that won prizes for its fake news Russia hoax?
60
FWIW
It started back well before that –
“How ‘The New York Times’ Helped Hide Stalin’s Mass Murders in Ukraine”
Prizes too
“Walter Duranty, the New York Times’ man in Moscow, outright lied about the events, deliberately misleading his readers. In 1932, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for reporting.”
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/walter-duranty-ukraine-new-york-times-mr-jones-agnieszka-holland
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It is highly unlikely that we will discover a good article in the NYT, and this weekend certainly won’t break that trend. It’s easy to find information about Musk’s grandfather Joshua Haldeman and other journalists already dug this all up years ago. The NYT is rehashing old news.
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/technocracy-incorporated-elon-musk/
Inheritance of political opinions simply doesn’t happen, genetics does not work that way. People pick up political opinions from many places, including relatives, but also friends, and all sorts of public figures, and personal research. There’s no evidence anywhere that Musk was especially influenced by his grandfather.
This is all part of the smear campaign which is designed to encourage violence and thuggery against innocent Tesla owners and dealers. Why anyone would be buying into this rubbish is beyond me … but I suppose there’s people with no shame.
And by the way, if you bother to read, Joshua Haldeman’s trouble related to Technocracy happened in Canada, not the USA, and he resigned soon afterwards because the technocrats aligned themselves with the USSR and Haldeman was anti-communist.
10
DOGE volunteer speaks about social security (5 min video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnNVo8pOE74
11
Talking of govt-sponsored misinfo:
“We know our planet is warming due to the release of greenhouse gases…”
so saith ‘Doctor’ Claire Concannon, a doomsayer biologist who’s now employed by the state broadcaster to scare the living daylights out of little children – and I presume grown adults too – with her lilting Irish doomsday call-to-arms to tackle CCC™️.
She recently travelled down to McMurdo Base in Antarctica (not sure if she planted her carbon credit pine trees there or in NZ once she returned) to interview other non-medical ‘doctors’ working on the ice, including the usual NIWA & Victoria University ‘the end is nigh’ experts.
They’d issued an emergency press release due to their ‘findings’ – are they similar to ‘learnings’? – that 2023/24’s sea ice had fallen off a cliff. No wonder she bandied the word ‘unprecedented’ about as these scientists had, allegedly, finally discovered the Edge Of The World where all things fall off and plummet into the Great Void Of Nothingness. Or was it merely a blip?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/ourchangingworld
(enter at your own mind-numbing risk).
The B-52s must’ve had her in mind when they penned their timeless tune:
She Came From Planet Claire!
110
FWIW
“What Bureaucrats REALLY Say and Do Behind Closed Doors”
“One of the most frustrating things about debating with liberals is that they continually repeat the claim that, because some action or program is described in some benign way, that the action or program actually DOES the fine and good thing that the description claims.
DEI is all about “inclusion.” It’s right there in the NAME! Words are the only thing that matters, you see.
Reality is not defined by words. Words are supposed to reflect reality. Liberals often get things wrong by starting at the wrong point and working their way backward.
This story is a perfect example of how things really work much of the time. ”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/04/05/what-bureaucrats-really-say-and-do-behind-closed-doors-n3801488
40
…and we’re back to “real time” again…
Either ditch the daylight saving nonsense or moves the clocks forward 1 hour permanently.
Why not call it “darkness limiting” instead?
73
It has never made sense for warmer countries to adopt daylight saving. The smarter warmer Asian countries have understood this.
10
Proximity to the equator also a factor of course. Like Queensland and Northern Territory.
30
I hate it when we turn the clocks back but I really look forward to putting them forward. To me it signifies that the start of summer is just around the corner, there’s nothing better than enjoying a beer on a warm barmy evening sitting outside instead of inside the pub for a change. I hate dark winters evenings so an extra hour of sunlight suits me just fine.
00
You do know that longer days in Summer are provided by the Earth’s orbit … and not by government telling us the twiddle with clocks?
02
Of course I do Tel. I wasn’t born yesterday.
10
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putins-two-faced-strategy-says-approach-trump-ukraine-rcna199449
Delay, Distract, Deceive, Demoralize, then rinse and repeat.
51
Good ol’ NBC propaganda-
“At the same time, Putin ordered the mobilization of 160,000 troops, his largest in 14 years, as his drones continue their nightly bombardment of Ukrainian civilians and he plans a spring offensive — if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to be believed.”
His annual troop call-up for the Reserves, not related to Ukraine at all. Ukie drones bomb Russian civilians every night too, and he doesn’t need a ‘spring offensive’, he just keeps his army moving forward.
” even a partial or temporary truce has been blocked by the Russians.” No truth there, the Russians told the Yanks what their conditions were, the Yanks came up with something crazy and said “Accept this”, then bitched about it when Putin said ‘No’.
“In the short term, there are few signs Russia is slowing its war.”
The only truthful statement in the whole article! Russia has no reason to slow the war, they will continue until they win what they set out to do.
61
With your inside knowledge, can you let us know what they have set out to do – does it include the Baltic States?
10
Russia has *repeatedly* set out it’s objectives.
De-Nazify, De-militarise Ukraine.
Remove them from Russian soil (as per UN articles)
No NATO membership for Ukraine.
The Baltics are of NO interest to Russia, but if the Baltics choose to treat their citizens of Russian heritage as second class, or worse, then the interest Russia will show them will be… uncomfortable.
50
Willing to learn….
10
Or just be capable of doing more than one thing at a time
00
FWIW – a covid records site
” I am extremely pleased to announce that, after years of hard work, our diligent C&C volunteers have opened the fully working version of their website, the Covid-19 files. The site provides a one-stop shop for searching covid-related documents of all kinds, including Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, legal court case filings, public database findings, and other materials. It’s a critical part of our long-term plan to achieve covid accountability.”
https://c19files.org/
More at
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/vigilant-saturday-april-5-2025-c?
And on tariffs etc
91
More covid scene
“Follow The Science: Why Peter Marks Was Asked To Leave The FDA”
“Peter Marks is not a hero of the resistance but instead has been subverting the scientific process at FDA for years.
The media proclamation that Dr. Marks’ is “FDA’s top vaccine scientist” is ironic because he decided to give himself that position. Marks is a physician but has no clinical or scientific training in vaccines or immunology. Dr. Marks trained as an oncologist, a field far from the important and complex area of vaccine biology. At FDA in 2021, Dr. Marks removed top career vaccine scientists so he could force through the approval of the COVID vaccine to meet an arbitrary Biden administration deadline.”
More at
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/follow-science-why-peter-marks-was-asked-leave-fda
61
FWIW
“WATCH: Man Savagely Trolls Triggered Anti-Musk Agitators with a Creative ‘New Technology’ During a “Tesla Takedown” Protest in California”
The “Retard Finder”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/tomorrow-watch-man-savagely-trolls-triggered-anti-musk/
50
New technology in action
https://twitter.com/i/status/1908265395095822837
00
Word of the day: kakistocracy.
Example: Australia is a kakistocracy.
QUOTE A kakistocracy (/kækɪˈstɒkrəsi/, /kækɪsˈtɒ-/) is a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens. The word was coined as early as the seventeenth century. Peter Bowler has noted in his book that there is no word for the government run by the best citizens, and that the aristarchy may be the right term, but still, it could conceivably be a kakistocracy disguised as an aristocracy. END QUOTE (Wikipedia)
110
That maybe true David however I believe the Dutton government if elected would also qualify as a kaki-whatever.
16
Absolutely! No difference between them at all, except through the rose-tinted spectacles of voters…
The mere fact that some people desire power over their fellows is reason enough to keep them well away from it.
31
FWIW
“Reading the Sky: The Secret Science Behind Cloud Shapes and Weather Prediction”
https://scitechdaily.com/reading-the-sky-the-secret-science-behind-cloud-shapes-and-weather-prediction/
https://instapundit.com/712656/#disqus_thread
Something else lacking in those global models?
30
Nephology is the word:
from Greek nephos for cloud.
Not to be confused with *necromanncy* which is the dark art as practiced by climastrologists of the Mannian Error – often simplified to ME! ME! ME!
70
A tip: many of us are now using Brave web browser, not least because it blocks ads in some video content. I don’t know how the various advertising models work, but I imagine that, as a result, somewhere along the line conservative commentators are missing out on income. To remedy this I now do my browsing in Brave, but when I want to view content from worthy conservative commentators and news channels, I copy the link to the video into another browser — one that doesn’t block ads — and view it there.
61
Latest UAH.
https://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_March_2025_v6.1_20x9-scaled.jpg
41
Global temperatures trending down for the last 12 months but overall there has been an increase of about 0.7C since 1998.
What will happen next?
50
It doesn’t really matter. All Humans have to do is adapt just like the flora and fauna has to.
60
Do we all have to adapt or just some of us the way some flora and fauna do? It seems to me that if you can dismiss the GBR’s survival as a case of “there will always be a reef somewhere”, an argument made by Jo y’day then there is no justification in getting upset about particular groups of humans. Genocide is of no greater import, in geological time, than COT is on the GBR now.
00
>of no greater import
In the immense vastness of time and space nothing is important. It’s only our hearts and minds that decide what to give importance to. In your local world how much do you believe in your values ethics and principles and to what extent are you prepared to defend them.
20
BoM says we’ll enjoy this winter ‘with an increased chance of unusually high overnight temperatures nationwide.’
21
“‘with an increased chance of unusually high overnight temperatures nationwide.’”
haha! They still haven’t explained our warmer last winter and our decidedly colder summer. Their predicted 6deg minimum last night left ice on the grass here at 9am.
21
Except its not temperature its divergence from a 30 year mean value which is currently 1991-2020
How does it actually compare to the hottest periods in each area of the globe. In the US it was the 1930’s Australia late 18th and early 19th century.
Averages hide a multitude of sins.
You will likely find we are no hotter than those periods in our historical past
51
BOM, being a government and also a scientific body is always correct. We nowadays fill colder only because of slowing blood flow.
Strangely though they do not report 40-41 degrees summer days in Melbourne, as they did in past.
Maybe it is my imagination, you know – last century the weather was better and I was 6’3″ tall, blond, very muscular…
60
>6’3″ tall, blond
No wonder you were blond, it’s always snowing at that altitude.
30
‘Colder’ than 1998 and 2016 –
has the Hokey Schtick™️ finally flipped?
Now how to make half-a-degree sound scary…
(oops, meant to be a reply to el gordo at #19)
60
So Albo-Tross wants to artificially pump the economy with
“Taxpayers will contribute $4000 for an average household battery installation under a $2.3b election commitment by the PM, with Labor promising the policy will push electricity prices down for ‘everyone’”
This is, of course, absolute balderdash! Labor may gain a few votes but China will, once again, be the main beneficiary with Australian Tax Payers the biggest losers over the medium to long term. The batteries may last 5-10 years but the debt will last for ever.
60
The Government is *desperate* in it’s need to do something about the daily solar surge (hello duck curve), without actually admitting solar is the *problem*, hence trying to get as much battery on the grid as possible.
There are already companies offering free electricity to charge a battery ( “solar soak” ) and ~ 16c/kWhr FIT during evening peak.
Just another Government “fix” for a problem Government created…
20
“Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong says Peter Dutton was ‘reckless’ to suggest Australia’s defence relationship with the US could be a key bargaining chip in Australia’s favour in negotiations over tariffs”.
Of course she does she wants to kowtow to China
51
I apologize in advance for my cynical outlook.
I have solar panels on my shed’s roof, so I at least noticed the attempt by a political party seeking election, that a subsidy would be given for the installation of an associated battery system. I also noted that the solar panels and controllers and any attached battery systems would most likely be sourced from China.
May I suggest an alternative?
Provide a subsidy of 90% for the Australian certification of solar panel controllers and any battery systems which could be attached.
The cost of batteries (even the 400v versions used in solar systems) have declined markedly in the last few years in China. But given the smallness of the Australian market, the Chinese manufacturers seem uninterested in “meeting the unique Australian requirements”.
If the cost was low enough to do that, perhaps an Australian distributor could afford it? Perhaps creating a system capable of being priced (without subsidy) at 50% of current price points?
10
“Hailed by the British government as the world’s first online safety law, the Online Safety Act (OSA) [regulates] sites that allow user interaction, including forums.. Ofcom warned that noncompliance could result in enforcement action—including massive fines of 18 million pounds (more than $23 million), or 10 percent of a company’s annual revenue—or even court orders to block access in the UK….Gab has refused to comply with the OSA…Gab said that this “law operates outside their jurisdiction.” “The most fundamental of America’s laws—the First Amendment to our Constitution—ensures Gab’s right to provide a service that allows anyone, anywhere, to receive and impart political opinions of any kind, free from state interference, on its US-based servers,” they said in a statement last month.”
The UK’s version of our ‘internet censor versus Musk’. So, Australia, UK, France, Germany, all recently censoring internet access in their countries. Hopefully Trump can crush them.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-uk-internet-policing-law-targets-us-online-forums
30
Hmmm! Noticed from outside
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nsw-criminalises-lgbt-conversion-practices
“NSW Criminalizes LGBT Conversion Practices”
20
The way I understand it, it’s going to be illegal to try to convert an LGTPQ person to a straight or heterosexual orientation, but is it also going to be illegal to try and convert a straight or heterosexual person into an LPGBBQ person?
10
My understanding of the homosexual problem, it is actually a spiritual problem. The homosexual who desires to give up that life style needs to services of a Christian versed in that type of ministry. Derek Prince carried out the expelling of the spirit of sodomy.After the spirit was caste out there was a shocking smell permeating the room.
Homosexuals are not born that way. Somewhere along the line there has been a conscious decision to accept that life style. Hope that is helpful
00
>there was a shocking smell permeating the room
Possibly the LPGBBQ.
00
Umm, I would seriously have liked to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting, eh!
I think the L’s should be at the front of the acronym.
Hey, why not the G’s.
What’s wrong with the B’s being in front.
Umm, let’s pretend I actually didn’t mention this eh!
(not) Tony.
20
FWIW
“Eh Gawd”
Like the TV ads “And yes there is more”
“US Peanut Allergy Epidemic Sprang From Experts’ Exactly-Wrong Guidance”
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/us-peanut-allergy-epidemic-sprang-experts-exactly-wrong-guidance
And check those mentioned in despatches
30
FWIW
“Climate Change Driving California’s Golden Road to Decline”
https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/05/climate-change-driving-californias-golden-road-to-decline/
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/04/05/climate-change-driving-californias-golden-road-to-decline-n3801484
A “Deplorable’s view” is that there are lessons there to be read
A “Deplorable’s other view” is that both opinions will be largely ignored
00
The largest seasonal workforce in the US is H&R Block….
https://michaelwest.com.au/internal-revenue-service-starts-cutting-20000-workers/
An interesting tax season to come in the US.
What will be found in the IRS?
10
All aboard Premier’s gravy train: $419k salaries on offer. Seven Suburban Rail Loop jobs with taxpayer-funded salaries of up to $419,000 are being filled as Premier Jacinta Allan doubles down on the controversial project.
Apply if you only want one of these positions on a temporary basis
20