Power was out here this morning, car took out a power line pole according to Energex the power supplier. Nothing works without power in the bush of course. No pressure pumps so no water, no morning coffee or porridge, no TV, radio or computer to get information either. I only then realised we no longer have a working battery radio, so must get one. No landline now as it goes through the computer, but at least the mobile got the information.

It was cold here this morning. 3C, which is damn cold by our standards, so I decided not to go out & fire up the gen set for a short outage. I have remote start, but have to do the connections in 3 places & cut the connection to mains manually.

With the closure last week of one more of the large coal fired generating plants, my guess is we are just one more such closure before the rolling blackouts start, particularly on cold still early mornings & evenings. I guess I had best bite the bullet & spend the money on automatic switching gear. How on earth can we be stupid enough to switch from good reliable coal to 17Th century Dutch intermittent technology to generate our power?

"How on earth can we be stupid enough to switch from good reliable coal to 17Th century Dutch intermittent technology to generate our power?"

'We' are not stupid; it's the two main political parties, plus the Greens, and the people who keep voting for them who are stupid.

Dear Hasbeen,

So let me get this right. A car hitting a power pole took out your electricity supply and you decided to turn it into a whinge about the closure of Australia's oldest and least efficient power plant in an entirely different state to you?

Bloody hell mate, the only one left on the forum who would be brain scrambled enough to even attempt what you have done is the poodle. Well you know the saying, if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

Hassy,

You didn't have your porridge, you poor dear, no consideration for the unfortunate fella who crashed into a power poll. I know you moved into that lush green oasis many years ago, and in time you have managed to turn it into your own personal "Sahara Sandhill". I've said before, its not too late for you to go cap in hand to the Greens and the Local Mob, and admit the error of your ways, and ask for help to establish some semblance of sustainability on self created desert.

SR that is your weakest reply yet. I don't quite see what the stupidity of wind power has to do with dogs & flees, but I suppose when you are desperate to say something to justify the ridiculous, that is the sort of rubbish we can expect.

Paul "consideration for the unfortunate fella who crashed into a power poll", hell. He should be charged with public nuisance & be made to pay full compensation to all who missed out on brekkie or their morning coffee. Our greeny infested world is bad enough with out having to face it on an empty stomach.

STEELEREDUX & PAUL1405...

Sadly, neither of you would recognise real hardship, if it bit you collectively on your ar*e. Nor have either of you ever suffered any significant hardship in your lives! Try hoisting around in near 100% humidity, primary jungle - A weapon, ammo, water (very heavy), provisions, all on your back, and hope to hell you manage to find you way to the designated LZ in time for extraction. While every part of you, is chaffed red raw with sweat due to being continually wet.

What process do you both suggest we use to generate sufficient power to alleviate such humid conditions in the northern reaches of this great country. And conversely, generate sufficient power to warm the houses and flats of citizens in southern regions in winter months. Sure, if the government was seriously prepared to examine the viability of Nuclear energy so be it, but seemingly neither party seems keen enough.

Instead of slinging crap at HASBEEN & TTBN. for offering a sensible comment, join them, and together, mutually seek other possibilities. After all, it impacts on us all.

Dear o sung wu,

Sure. But likewise you have likely never lived in a coal mining town with the mine and the dirty and inefficient power station leaving a gritty film over everything, were your brothers and sisters suffer from an almost constant croup and where your mother has to pick her washing days depending on the prevailing wind.

Perhaps we all might think about those who live and work in industries which shorten lives and blight childhoods.

We have a pathway toward a cleaner way of providing energy in this country. To be seeing off the oldest most polluting power station should be a cause for celebration, not a whinge-fest.

But this shouldn't distract from the fact the Hasbeen and I have been giving each other clips around the ears for a long while now. I'm pretty busy nowadays with other things but it does feel homely to pop on here and have each other take a swing.

Long may it continue.

Give Mr War Hero a medal! You know nothing of another's circumstance.

BTW, you chose what you did, you weren't forced into it, or were you?

Yep coal mining used to be dirty and dangerous. Thank God we've now got clean, green batteries where the constituent parts such as cobalt are made from fairy-dust and unicorn horn....

http://industryeurope.com/downloads/5084/download/drc10.jpg?cb=623710cd5189b37f04dc33f6c1211eeb&w=1200

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/180416120628-cobalt-mining-kids-river-780x439.jpg

http://rightscorridor.com/human-rights-activist-flees-drc-after-receiving-threats-over-child-cobalt-mining-lawsuit/

But, heh, they're not Aussie kids....so all good.

But, heh, they're not Aussie kids....so all good.
Mhaze,
That’ll be the first time SteeleRedux & Paul1405 will agree with you whole-heartedly !

o sung wu

There is no reasoning with the resident nutters - overgrown children with huge egos and no brains, capable only of rubbishing other posters and calling them names. Leave them to mhaze, who is something similar but on the other side, and something of an embarrassment for the right of centre.

I'm pretty much through with putting anything up just to be insulted by a couple of idiots with nothing but huge chips on their shoulders and nasty personalities.

Hasbeen

In SA, if you damage a Stobie pole (power pole) you pay for it.

As for the 'poor' driver who took out your power, that's a typical reaction from the loony left who always take the side of the perpetrator, particularly if they harm people they don’t like (us).

This syndrome was demonstrated in SA over the last few days when a nutter in a small country town stabbed two police officers, who were forced to shoot him dead. The lefty media went out of its way to find people to sympathise with the stabber because of his 'mental health issues'. Outrageous! Both cops were hospitalised, and it was touch and go for one of them, who was pronounced to be out of danger only yesterday

ttbn,

Is that why you referred to me as a MORON and FWIT, not that long ago, I always address you as ttbn, and another of your ilk, likes to call me Village Idiot and Paul something or other. The same bloke tries to intimidate by snide innuendo that I am a paedophile.

So don't try to be sanctimonious, you're no clean skin yourself!

PAUL 1405...

I'd rather be called a fake, a pretender, or otherwise than a craven coward who deliberately avoided his nation's Statutory National Service.

Be advised, my cowardly friend, you'll have to answer for your cowardice one day. You should remember, Paul, all of us on this Forum recognise that you only snipe, insult and humiliate when you know you're safe. You may deceive strangers with your verbosity and insults, but in reality, you're the laughingstock of all of us who knows you to be the coward you are.

In fact, Paul 1405, when I think about it, your whole existence has this pervasive stench of affluence and rot about it.

Hey ttbn, have you noticed that it is since they closed the mental asylums that the cops are regularly affronted with dangerous people with mental health problems?

Have you also noticed it is only since we flooded the place with those previously incarcerated in those asylums that we have regularly elected Labor governments?

Hasbeen

This person who stabbed the police - and thankfully is no more - was videoed a couple of days before shouting at a elderly woman who moved his dog so that she could sit on public bench that the dog was tied to. He was an ongoing nutter who should have been in secure care long ago for his own good and the safety of the public.

South Australia long ago closed mental institutions and let the inmates loose on society - all to save money to spend on themselves and their mates. I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the people in government were funny farm graduates

DEAR MR WAR HERO,

Obviously you came to this thread to 'FLAME', hoping your snide opening comments would invoke a nasty uncontrolled negative response from Steele and/or myself, you were disappointed, it didn't happen, Steele replied with a most genteel of comment. I was mildly annoying for you with; "Give Mr War Hero a medal"....Hardly the vitriolic response you craved, but it was enough to fire you up with your usual hateful bile, oft exhibited on this forum towards those who openly "defy you". Its not like when you were in the army and the coppers, others begged for clemency from one as powerful as you! But now you're just a tied old man full of regrets.

You then fire up, hoping for what you so desperately desire, abuse, which in a perverse way gives you self satisfaction. You have lived a life of violence towards others, no doubt physical violence as a demon of war, and again more violence as a copper, always believing, you were special, and having the god given authority to act as you did towards the weak and unfortunate. Most of the time others will "responded" by shying away from your bullish behaviour. Your above post shows the traits of the classic school yard bully; "Everyone agrees with me, every one loves me and not you, because I'm right", isn;t that just you to a tee.

I pity you, not only do you have most likely physical scares from your violent past, but deep seated mental scares as well, you need psychiatric help, but as you are in your advanced years, simply waiting for the inevitable to arrive, to put you out of your misery is probably the best option for you now.

I note that Paul 1405 doesn't remember the countless times that he called me a 'Nazi', 'old fart', etc. There is something not right with him, either - apart from a total lack of self-awareness, just like his thankfully-departed girlfriend. What a relief it was to see the back of her. If certain people stopped taking notice of him, he could go the same way.

Why PAUL 1405? I never thought you cared. Yet you're quite prepared to hand out a dose of your own brand of trenchant venom to others but dislike it immensely when it's returned in kind.

Apropos STEELEREDUX, compared to you, PAUL 1405, he (STEELEREDUX) possesses more character and ethical qualities at the tip of his little finger than you can hope for in ten lifetimes. And we joust regularly on just about anything & everything and have done so for several years.

While it may be true that most members of this august Forum may find you a curious, somewhat odd, albeit amusing little chap, with your 'off the wall' socialist politics. Personally, I see you more as an individual who openly and proudly boasted how he dodged conscription, with several similar like-minded individuals who ended up in 1 MCE for their trouble.

If you were to show even a jot of contrition, it might prove a watershed of sorts. But you haven't, which speaks volumes about your character.

MR WAR HERO,

Should I feel deprived, that I didn't get the opportunity of joining the gung-ho brigade in an orgy of baby killing and rape in Vietnam. Me thinks not, I left that to the more qualified. Unfortunately many returned stotally screwed up, then OD'ed on drugs, or went out and necked themselves with a length of rope. How many like that did you know, many I suspect.

The typical bully approach, try to isolate the victim, by pathetically sucking up to those who might offer support. You are just so predictable.

You came on here and started this, but as you can see, I wont kowtow to a drop kick like yourself. For someone who is used to lording it over others in your "past employment", this must infuriate you, but I don't care one way or the other. Say what you like, its water off a ducks back to me.

I think your last sentence says it all. PAUL 1405 - Sadly, it is water off a duck's back. You might've been a pretty decent sort of bloke otherwise. I know you'll reply by saying I'll never be a decent bloke, and you might well be right, I dunno. But at my age, all I can do is try. The concept of decency has never curried any thought with you.

Concerning Vets who've necked themselves - I know of a couple. But more likely, they meet their demise through the excessive consumption of alcohol. Together with a litany of busted marriages, chronic illnesses, etc. None that I've heard ever purposefully killed babies. I guess squadrons of heavy B-52s carpet-bombing jungle, with HE and napalm, will invariably leave all manner of casualties. The Oz TF at Nui Dat used to overlook the Long Hai hills, which were rotten with Cong and ARVN regulars. Consequently, the USAF regularly bombed the Long Hai's flying regular sorties from their base at Da Nang.

Anyway, you'll soon get your wish, PAUL1405, us baby killers are rapidly thinning out, noticeably so, if last ANZAC Day was any measure. I'm eighty, so many Vietnam Vets are around that figure except those conscripted at age eighteen.

Hassy,

Your attempt to link your power outage to green energy is feeble in the extreme. Even worse is trying to link it to the final closure (28th April), its been running at a reduced capacity for some time, of the 52 year old Ladell power station in New South Wales. AGL like all other providers see no long term future for coal fired power stations in Australia, they will not invest money in such projects, they are just not financially viable for investors over a 40 year period. As for the closer measures were taken to safeguard supply., and here it is, May 12th, and the totally closure has not impacted supply in any way.

o sung wu

Most people would respect your military and police service. The rubbish aimed at you by one unhinged person who has nothing to be proud of, and who can't remember what he says from one rant to the next, should be ignored. What he has said to you and about you is abusive - the ravings of a non-achiever with a huge chip on his shoulder. There is nothing to be gained by trying to have a conversation with people like him.

Thanks, TTBN - Matey, I no longer have the energy to do battle with PAUL1405; I'm now over eighty years and too tired to engage in combative rhetoric with this individual. Perhaps he's right, in some of the things he's said about me, I dunno. Time I left the Forum permanently I think.

That is a big NO o sung wu, we need the real world experience & the common sense you bring to us with your posts. The nasty ideological rubbish we get from some lefty posters must be refuted, for the sake of our grand kids.

On the other subject AGLs balance sheet tries to disguise the huge excess profits it makes from unreliables & the subsidies, but it is there for those who would look. That is why they want coal fired power gone. When it is, lust watch the escalation in prices. Albo's $500 hand out will be just a drop in the bucket compared to the rises to come.

o sung wu,

Stick around and express your opinions. That's what Online Opinion is for: not to argue with people who rarely have an opinion, but lay in wait like trapdoor spiders to pounce on the opinions of others.

I've been enjoying OLO for most of the time it has existed, and I don't remember anyone changing his or her mind or opinions just because someone else didn't agree with them.

TTBN...

I appreciate your support, my friend. I've said on several occasions that my thoughts almost mirror those of your own, only you assemble them far more professionally than I ever could.

In the coppers, we unofficially learn to write reports and complete other requisite in-house documentation in a clear and concise style but far from something a Skilled wordsmith might write. Many of those who regularly contribute to this Forum seem to write so much more eruditely than the average copper I know, me included.

Thanks again, TTBN, for your support; I greatly appreciate it.

And thank you HASBEEN, for your moral support. You, TTBN, together with a few others herein, are the only true measure of common sense, and I mean the clearly defined common sense one can see on the Forum. I truly fear for the sake of our great nation what the future holds for us all the way the world's going.

A massive Chinese Army to our north, instead of us preparing to re-arm and modernise our military assets, we're arguing about 'the Voice', or political correctness, or how many different genders we can have in our laws.

Even an imminent jurist was so bogged down writing his obiter dictum that he tried so hard to appease the various genders present in his Court when he had his judgement published, neither he nor the various Officers of the Court, could establish the precise gender of the plaintiff. Where was the common sense? Thanks again HASBEEN for your support, I appreciate it very much.

I’m starting to think that Paul1405 is on the Labor Payroll simply to derail constructive opinion that could weaken Leftist indoctrination.

Group hug, kissy kissy, gotta a little love fest going here. With Indy's arrival you fellas have cracked 300!

Paul1405,
Thank you for admitting that we’re right !

In some respects, PAUL 1405, you'd have to be the loneliest individual on this Forum. Moreover, you seem bereft of genuine supporters, and those who may agree with you quickly tire of your know-it-all attitude.

You were much more amiable when I first met you here some years ago. Though you'd seek to have your opinions and views heard, you were reasonable in prosecuting those opinions and ideas. And you suddenly changed, diametrically so. As if you thought everyone was out to eviscerate you and your views. And clearly, they weren't.

I think it was the famous American artist Edward HOOPER who graphically captured (oil on canvas) several chronically lonely individuals having coffee at an all-night Diner in New York somewhere.

Sadly PAUL 1405, you utterly epitomise one such image in that painting. We're born alone, and we die alone. But to live a life of loneliness - I pity anyone who lives such an isolated, forsaken existence.

o sung wu,

I'm sure a person who has worked in the field of clinical psychology must find our interaction most interesting. Have you ever had cause to interact with such a person?

Yup, as a matter of fact, I have. From mid-2005 to the end of 2008. The Austin Repatriation Hospital. Every Friday, I attended a group session with fellow veterans suffering from chronic PTSD and nightmares. It was known as the Nightmare group. With seven Vets in each group. With a qualified Psych. nurse overseeing the conduct of the group.

And you, Paul, what are your Psychiatric antecedents, may I ask.

o sung wu,

Been fortunate not to have been involved with such at a patient to doctor level, that's not to say I don't need such treatment. BTW, I have a friend in Canberra now retired, who was a professional in the field during his working life, in NSW prisons and later with the Federal department.

Okay, I did text him Wednesday, saying I think I'm going to have another "stoush" with my forum buddy, with a link to this thread. He finds the anonymous interaction between us and other posters interesting. Let me say my friend is not out to, nor does he, criticise or denigrate you or others in any way, he just finds this sort of stuff interesting, why anonymous people clash, and also why they agree, and what he believes we get from a forum like this. He's very interested in peoples behaviour on social media in general, its something he didn't really experience in his working life.

p/s, I did give an outline of you and a couple of others I interact with regularly, as much as you have revealed about yourself on here in the past.

One thing he said, he doesn't see our anonymous interaction as harmful to either of us. Much more dangerous on 'Facebook' where people know the person they are interacting with, then it can become very personal.

Dear mhaze,

How utterly disingenuous of you to be putting up pictures of children mining Cobalt as a retort to filthy coal mining and power production.

Firstly Australia has the second highest Cobalt reserves in the world. Exploitative countries like the Congo undercut our mining costs and it is in our own interests that it get cleaned up, which is happening.

Secondly Cobalt is used in many sectors of the electricity industry including both gas and coal fired stations. It is employed in producing magnets for generators.

"alloys of cobalt are used in jet turbines and gas turbine generators, where high-temperature strength is important"
http://www.cobaltinstitute.org/about-cobalt/

It is of course used in rechargable batteries but also used "to make airbags in automobiles; catalysts for the petroleum and chemical industries; cemented carbides (also called hardmetals) and diamond tools; corrosion- and wear-resistant alloys; drying agents for paints, varnishes, and inks; dyes and pigments; ground coats for porcelain enamels; high-speed steels; magnetic recording media; magnets; and steel-belted radial tires."

Punching down again it appears.

Firstly Australia has the second highest Cobalt reserves in the world.
SteeleRedux,
So what, every natural resource is finite. The real question is, what will most of this Cobalt be used for ?
For the consumers who will deplete it in a flash or will it be used for technology that is good for humanity & life on the Planet in general for the long term ?
Australians in the Australian sense are all but extinct now & all the new blood Albo’s gang is lining up will do only one thing-boost Labor votes.
I’m afraid, Australians will not even be mentioned as a Nation soon due to their own doing !

The criticism of Hasbeen by the critics here is absurd.
He was just pointing up the inconvenience that occurs when power goes.
This inconvenience will magnify dramatically when it happens on most
days around 6PM. You will cop it then from the ladies then when the
power goes off at dinner time.
"Ladies !" you trendies will scream, but because of children it will
always be so.
Watch the pollies jump to attention then !

Hi Bezza,

Then it can be a romantic candle light dinner for two, open a tin of cold baked bean, washed down with a worm bottle of beer. Since its a freezing cold night we'll both be sitting there dressed like Nanook Of The North enjoying our cold beans and worm beer, sounds great to me.

Paul1405,
Worm Beer ? Are you fantasising about Witchetty Grubs again ? ;-)

Indy,

Haven't you tried 'Worm Beer' drink it warm, it beats VB and XXXX any day! Don't be put off by the colour, that of squashed Witchetty Grubs, like the grubs, ita all natural. Tried a Witchetty Grub once, well yeah, bit like the wife's love of 'kina', them being the uncooked guts of sea urchins. Takes all kinds.