flybyknight

the bath shower thing.... it seems baths are safer and cleaner. see..... http://news.discovery.com/human/life/showerhead-pathogens-disease-bacteria.htm you'd never get a real aussie to admit it though, poms stink end of lol. also.......

as far as flying with the airline i'm going to side with SL on this one. (rare i know! ) the conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this one though. the downing (or mislaying) of an airliner is such a rare event, and with so many operators, i wonder what the odds are of 2 in such a short space of time. my cynical side suggests they need to merge with aer lingus, for some of that irish luck, or is this just incredibly bad fortune? from the little good information i've seen on this, it seems the notam has been in circulation for a couple of months warning of the area to avoid. no mention however was given to the possible threat of SAM's. with this in mind it is a standard procedure to fly over if there is a comfortable separation. areas to avoid are numerous and posted all the time and checking and planning around them are part and parcel of operating an aircraft. i'm sure if they knew there was a possibility of a SAM in rogue hands with the ability to comfortably reach the jet, they would have not been there in the first place! our thoughts are with those affected by both of these tragedy's, i hope the truth comes out accompanied with decisive corrective action.

yay $50, but at what cost?

trained there in the gym for almost a year before i joined the military, my dad lives a stones throw from the gate. are you working there atm?

Hi Steve welcome, im also in (or was in.... kinda) the aerospace industry, and originally come from gosport. small world fella! there's a great crowd here; if they don't know it, its not worth knowing! enjoy

at least in a dictatorship you know you don't have a choice, I'm yet to see a true democracy, they get in do as they please and aren't accountable if they don't follow up on election promises. barstewards.

the abbott government are in the process of securing slate and chalk for the new ausnet. exciting stuff! quaint.

hehe thanks each to their own i guess one thing Lord Deban mentioned is that the evidence of man made Climate Change is now as strong as the evidence linking smoking to cancer. i havn't checked this as yet, but does this sway you in any way? seems pretty compelling. edit..... checked ....... http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-risks-as-conclusive-as-link-between-smoking-and-lung-cancer/

queensland are already getting there, it's good they are forcing people who have a new solar system to fit a box that stops their power going onto the grid. this sounds crap until you factor in that solar is already cheaper than off peak electricity, so in effect they are forcing people to buy battery back up and go off grid. lithium battery prices have fallen over 40% in the last few years, they will plateau soon but not before they make off grid a viable and atractive proposition to the majority of Australian's! Mr Abbotts dreams are already dead, he's just too danm stupid to realise it. lets just hope he doesn't trap us all with laws to enforce our dependence.

the politicians and sceptics should read this, and we should all remember it when they try to counter.....

that Lord Deban interview is great, she's trying her level best to counter his evidence but she doesn't have the ammo!

the difference with solar is that it gives back, from the moment it's running it creates no more pollution, anything that burns, cars powerstations etc just keep on pouring out the pollution. in direct comparison over the lifetime of the panel, the footprint is bugger all. china have built a huge solar plant at fukushima to compensate for the loss of the plant, they are in the process of ramping up the arrays and storage solutions, these things take time to build though so as you mention coal is a easy stopgap measure. no sane modern government will consider coal a long term proposition these days. from wikipedia.... [TABLE=class: wikitable sortable jquery-tablesorter] Lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by electricity source.[2][TR] [TH=class: headerSort, bgcolor: #F2F2F2, align: center]Technology[/TH] [TH=class: headerSort, bgcolor: #F2F2F2, align: center]Description[/TH] [TH=class: headerSort, bgcolor: #F2F2F2, align: center]50th percentile (g CO 2 /kWhe)[/TH] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Hydroelectric[/TD] [TD]reservoir[/TD] [TD]4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Wind[/TD] [TD]onshore[/TD] [TD]12[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Nuclear[/TD] [TD]various generation II reactor types[/TD] [TD]16[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Biomass[/TD] [TD]various[/TD] [TD]18[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Solar thermal[/TD] [TD]parabolic trough[/TD] [TD]22[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Geothermal[/TD] [TD]hot dry rock[/TD] [TD]45[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Solar PV[/TD] [TD]Polycrystaline silicon[/TD] [TD]46[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Natural gas[/TD] [TD]various combined cycle turbines without scrubbing[/TD] [TD]469[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Coal[/TD] [TD]various generator types without scrubbing[/TD] [TD]1001[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] carbon capture and storage is incompatible with Australia's aging coal plants, its just a nice get out for the government.

this is the perfect thread for this. a lesson in political spin, all the data shows the carbon tax has made a massive dent in Australia's carbon output, but as a minister I need to show it failed hmmmmm..... http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/will-the-real-greg-hunt-please-stand-up-52286 the funny thing is, even if coal power could be produced for free in Australia, it would still be more expensive than solar! it's ok though, the public will fund it with handouts! Yay, the Australian people are great and good to their 1% also, for those wishing to get some money off their bill, the tax represents less than 5% of the annual bill (about $50-60 of the average). these bills will also rise well above inflation if the large scale wind and solar systems aren't commissioned (they wont be if the RET is abolished) and they are the only correcting factor in wholesale energy prices. this will lead over the next few years to higher energy prices! the average home-owner is far better off keeping the green energy right there, pinning down prices.

love the opening to this thread, i was going to write a 1 year in bit; but i don't need to now! thanks (don't agree with everything, but for the most part completely accurate )

hey Stacey, if the only problem with your current computer is that it cuts out when on battery, you could just get a fresh one. less than £100? could be an option? if you buy the it through a small independent computer shop they can test it for you there, that way you will know if it is the battery (which it most likely is) so you don't have to spend the money if it isn't the problem. edited as i wrote the word battery so many times i was sick in my mouth!

phone the old uk provider. there is a pretty good chance they still have the details of the amount you used. just ask. 100gb is plenty for most. the things to watch out for are streaming, netflix youtube etc and torrents. check broadband availability before you commit to a house, as cerberus mentioned quality varies. i think this current government wants everyone crapping in a chamber pot and chucking it out t'window, and cooking on 'open coal fire.

i know a couple of chippies in the uk, one of them is out of work, the other travels from portsmouth to london to live in shared digs earning the same money he was making in portsmouth back in the day. so as much as i'd love to be wrong, this seems to be bullshit. i guess sky are trying to energise the industry, it hasn't happened yet though!

lol that was a good catalyst, 1 comment that was laughable to be honest, and 4 pages of replies! what are we like! personally i'd go with the grow a pair solution. it was the 'i recorded all of it' that did it for me. it's either a great flame to get everyone talking, or you need to grow a pair.

i think it's important to understand how the banks do what they do. these are businesses that needed a financial bail out by the government, that then went on to make huge profits in a relatively short space of time. even while not lending as much to the small guy on the street. the question on everyone's lips should be 'how?' we have always been shown how the BOE sets the rate, and decides how much money is in circulation to control inflation. evidently however the freedoms the banks have allows them to create their own money. worth a read.... http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/18/truth-money-iou-bank-of-england-austerity

You know when you laugh so hard you can't breathe. this man has been responsible for that so many times! Thanks for everything

optus network are cheap. telstra are expensive. optus share their network with other providors. offering very cheap deals. as a rule, if you live in a built up area towns cities etc, go with optus or others & save your cash. if you move into a more out of the way place, go for telstra. as an example 1gb data only, is $25 a month on telstra for $18 vaya (on the optus network) will give you $650 of talk, unlimited sms, 1.5Gb of data and a *partridge in a pear tree. *limit of 0 per customer.

so far i've found one guy who has got close (0.8ACH) on a build. he's currently doing a degree and knows the pitfalls so it looks good. the short answer however is no, there are no passive houses in all of australia, why would any builder build a quality product when you can throw up crap with 'made in australia' written on it, and people will pay top dollar! the uk is almost at it's 1000th certified passive house, europe has 10's of thousands. the US and canada are picking up fast. Australia is sadly completely clueless, other than at the meeting, i've yet to meet someone in the industry who even knows what it is. with fuel prices as they are and the increasing price of extraction it makes sense on a financial basis alone. i find it odd that more people don't do this. to trust the australian star system is foolish. there is no testing on completion, the system is broken, corrupt or both. passive houses are only certified when the actual energy performance matches the data in the design. hell, even if your build doesn't meet the strict criteria, if you aim for the stars you're going to end up with a far better quality house than the standard. build for performance. save in the long run.

we've just come home from a passive house meeting. if you can, and you're feeling adventurous (for australia) look into it. it's truly the future, and common sense, it's just weird no australian main stream builders will do it yet. i guess it's the extra attention to detail that foxes them.

you should research voip providers in the country you want to phone. in your case find a provider in the philippines, register for their service. buy a voipfone or voip box/router, plug into a wired broadband connection, and off you go! cell phone based voip is scetchy at best, we used our voip service this way when we first arrived, and found the only way to get a good connection (to the uk) was to drive to a servo, or another place with a mobile service and very few people. as soon as the mobile masts become busy, you will have sound break up or total loss of the call. if you connect to a wired or wifi based connection though, all is good. we chat to the uk like we're there no problems at all. the other huge benefit of using a provider in the country you wish to call is that you can rent a phone number there for a small fee. you would have a number in the philippines, a normal residential number, that would connect directly to your Australia phone for free. your mom could call you for the same cost as calling a neighbour, and your calls to her would be super cheap too. just had a quick google...... http://dialervoip.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/which-voip-provider-serves-best-in-the-philippines/ might be somewhere to start