For some it's from the future,

For others, Happy Australia Day for those living in the greatest country in the world.

Get some pork on your fork, some shrimp on the barbie, and may your day be spent wrestling emus and punching kangaroos.. anything less is a bootable offence.

FOSTERS! I knew it.

I was always told real Australians don't drink Fosters.

Jan 25, 2024 21:35:46 GMT thereallt said:

I was always told real Australians don't drink Fosters.

It's true. I don't think I've ever had one, but I vaguely remember it being popular in the 80s. A lot of old drive thru bottle shops and general stores had/have these weird beer can decals on the front of their buildings, usually at least one was Foster's.

Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi

Happy Australia Day to all our Aussie's on here.

Hey, aren't you that guy everybody hates?

www.news.com.au/sport/tennis/anthony-albanese-booed-loudly-by-crowd-at-mens-australian-open-final/news-story/108adb2f5576c7f3d57f1b559d829693

I don't know where to put this, as there isn't an " Aussie " thread.

But is it possible for an entire generation to " age out " on one single day and realise today's music sucks unless you're 18-25?

That's what happened during The Hottest 100 for every Millennial who listened.

Jan 29, 2024 22:19:35 GMT NATH45 said:

I don't know where to put this, as there isn't an " Aussie " thread.

But is it possible for an entire generation to " age out " on one single day and realise today's music sucks unless you're 18-25?

That's what happened during The Hottest 100 for every Millennial who listened.

When you realise only teen girls vote in the hottest 100

People have been saying the same thing for 20 years let's be honest.

Because I am a boomer, this was peak Hottest 100 for me, I used to have this CD on repeat so much:

Arguably The Hottest 100 and Triple J did peak 20 years ago. Quality notably, but also relevancy. There's likely a lot of young people who don't know or care who G-Flip is. Or understand why Briggs is famous.

There's a documentary on the history of Triple J, where they talk about the " JJJ sound " and how the DJs played a particular type of music, and how bands if they wanted airplay needed to sound a particular way. It's been evident over the last few years. There's a plethora of indistinctable Perth bands that all as expected sound the same due to the Kingmakers influence. Upon hearing of Richard Kingsmill's redundancy, there was a lot people who were very happy.

Potentially after his embarrassing interview on ABC, his inability to answer questions or defend the company against allegations of price gouging and unfair practices with suppliers, Brad Banducci has retired. An Aussie Woolworths lifer will take the lead, at least that is a good thing.

Feb 20, 2024 22:03:00 GMT NATH45 said:

Potentially after his embarrassing interview on ABC, his inability to answer questions or defend the company against allegations of price gouging and unfair practices with suppliers, Brad Banducci has retired. A Aussie Woolworths lifer will take the lead, at least that is a good thing.

They should show that interview to anyone doing an MBA as a "What not to do"
To many corporations are run by consultants and consensus, people have forgotten that a CEO's primary job is to lead.

I'm guessing he's on the next plane back to South Africa. And I wouldn't be surprised if the SA cohort that runs the company follows him.

Easy victory for the next CEO. Drop prices by 10% overnight and cut the guts out of the low price / high margin lines and win some trust back. Then provide absolute transparency with the public and government on issues of price gouging.

Banducci wasn't sharp enough or articulate enough to ever convincingly justify or defend allegations of price gouging and the piss poor treatment of suppliers. And he certainly wasn't charismatic or charming enough to brush it off.

The incoming CEO, was the head of WooliesX, so I'd expect a real drive and restructure of the online business.

Feb 21, 2024 0:09:02 GMT NATH45 said:

I'm guessing he's on the next plane back to South Africa. And I wouldn't be surprised if the SA cohort that runs the company follows him.

Easy victory for the next CEO. Drop prices by 10% overnight and cut the guts out of the low price / high margin lines and win some trust back. Then provide absolute transparency with the public and government on issues of price gouging.

Banducci wasn't sharp enough or articulate enough to ever convincingly justify or defend allegations of price gouging and the piss poor treatment of suppliers. And he certainly wasn't charismatic or charming enough to brush it off.

The incoming CEO, was the head of WooliesX, so I'd expect a real drive and restructure of the online business.

There is no price gouging, they just need to get someone with enough balls to tell it like it is.
The margins at Woolworths and Coles are like 5% even if they halved them, it is about a 2.5% reduction in price costs.

Australia is the country where nobody understands basic economics.

If Banducci was articulate enough to argue your points, maybe he wouldn't have ran away. He was reduced to a bumbling mess and has been for a while. He's obviously a very tactful business leader to take a company that was on the ropes 10 years ago due to the egotistical expansion into Bunning's territory. 

But when a company posts a $1.7 billion profit they can afford to pass on some savings. So we can argue they only made 3%, and Coles only made 2.6% and that's only a tinsy-tiny, little number.. so what? It equates to a massive dollar value. 

Half-Yearly results dropped today, net profit $929 million for the half-year ending Dec. 31, compared with $907 million in the same period a year earlier. Sales also increase 4.0%. But the question will be, if items increased? 

So for the politicians, the economists, the media, the farmers, the suppliers and the customers... all of these people in the industry suggesting something is wrong here - it would suggest something is wrong here and not a collective lack of a basic understanding of economics.

Feb 21, 2024 2:49:17 GMT NATH45 said:

If Banducci was articulate enough to argue your points, maybe he wouldn't have ran away. He was reduced to a bumbling mess and has been for a while. He's obviously a very tactful business leader to take a company that was on the ropes 10 years ago due to the egotistical expansion into Bunning's territory. 

But when a company posts a $1.7 billion profit they can afford to pass on some savings. So we can argue they only made 3%, and Coles only made 2.6% and that's only a tinsy-tiny, little number.. so what? It equates to a massive dollar value. 

Half-Yearly results dropped today, net profit $929 million for the half-year ending Dec. 31, compared with $907 million in the same period a year earlier. Sales also increase 4.0%. But the question will be, if items increased? 

So for the politicians, the economists, the media, the farmers, the suppliers and the customers... all of these people in the industry suggesting something is wrong here - it would suggest something is wrong here and not a collective lack of a basic understanding of economics.

It's not a massive dollar value, it means for every $100 they take at the register they make $300
This is not because of the prices, but because of the ruthless efficiency of their distribution network.

The reason there aren't more players in the Australian market is that it is incredibly expensive to service.
The number of trucks required to go from farm to distribution to retail is phenomenal.
People talk about margins here versus the UK, but look at the population densities in Europe, the amount of fuel it takes to put groceries is crazy compared to anyone else in the world.

You run a 4% margin when your turnover is in the billions and you are already flying close to the sun.

I am happy to disagree with you on this point.

Most of Australia is disagreeing with you.

But that's ok, I'll concede to a avoid a lengthy back and forth and wish you well.

Feb 21, 2024 7:36:24 GMT NATH45 said:

Most of Australia is disagreeing with you.

But that's ok, I'll concede to a avoid a lengthy back and forth and wish you well.

Looking at the state of Australia's various governments I'm not sure what the majority thinks is a good indicator of much 😅

I think about this a lot.
My care for the planet is centered on the fact my two daughters will inherit it after I am gone.
The obsession here with green energy doesn't make much sense.

Australia contributes only 1.3% of global carbon dioxide emissions from human activity, which in turn represents just 3% of the overall amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere.
If we drop our emissions to zero it won't make a difference.

The part I really struggle with is that higher energy costs are causing manufacturing to close down.
These products will still be made, just in another country producing them less efficiently with dirtier coal.


I actually don't understand why the government allows the renewable lobby to openly lie.
They constantly talk about renewable being the cheapest form of generation.
From their numbers they leave out the cost of the grid, storage and capital cost against an existing network.
What is becoming clearer lately is the transmission cost.
When you have a system designed to deliver power from One place to everywhere it is easier to build a transmission network.
With Solar it is distributed and you need to bring power from everywhere to everywhere.

They were talking about all the private money lined up for renewable investment, but it has stopped.
The investors want to build the solar and wind farms, but not the transmission network and are demanding the government does.
That cost is NOWHERE in our budget and the related costs aren't even feasible to consider.

So while Nuclear gets called the most expensive form of power, that is a lie because Nuclear doesn't require storage or transmission costs, they can be built right next to coal power stations and share the grid.

Oh before anyone says it, yes Matt Canavan is a tool... Doesn't mean he is wrong though.

It's lies like this that make me want to follow Andrew Tate.







That's a Matt Canavan reference..

But, it's all lies iNCY. Most of it. To some degree, most people would suggest there's some form climate change. It's a reality. If you spray your garden with DDT and never water it again, the plants die. The bugs die. The birds stop coming round, and an entire ecosystem ceases to exist. We do this constantly as we build and expand and it has a detrimental impact on the climate. It extends beyond the originally coined, global warming.

But, to what extent do the lies go?

The BOM has been called out over its alarmist reporting. It said that this summer would be the hottest on record. The driest on record. An absolute scorcher. It has been the opposite. It's mild. And it's been unseasonably wet in many parts.

They continue to report " hottest days on record " if you ignore.. the records. 35 is the new 45.

And it's been suggested we have an alternative to The BOM to actually validate the modelling.

The ABC ironically reported on the alarmist reporting. Ironically, as they are the alarmists.

Ideology trumps reality. And hence why we see the most privileged people in society holding dear to this ideal that the world is end.

I do not get why you all feel like you need coal at all. There is so much open area in the outback you could move to almost entirely renewables and battery farms. From what I seen though the main people interested in that is Singapore with the Sun Cable. So weird that Singapore seems more interested in generating energy from the outback than Australia is. Like everytime I see a large solar project is coming there, it is owned by an international company.

And moving to solar right now is the cheapest it will ever be. But like the US people see the future in coal and natural gas. At here businesses realize they can turn cheap land into power generation. Feels like over there people are completely sleeping on it. And likely will have a VERY expensive correction down the line buying everything at far, far higher prices. Even when we move to fusion countries without power storage capacity will quickly find themselves competing for the parts to build battery farms as prices soar. Could do salt reactors to store power of course but research nearly ended there because lithium is new the coal that will never run out. May be true for the US now with our new finds, but not so much for others.

Mar 1, 2024 6:54:03 GMT c said:

I do not get why you all feel like you need coal at all. There is so much open area in the outback you could move to almost entirely renewables and battery farms. From what I seen though the main people interested in that is Singapore with the Sun Cable. So weird that Singapore seems more interested in generating energy from the outback than Australia is. Like everytime I see a large solar project is coming there, it is owned by an international company.

And moving to solar right now is the cheapest it will ever be. But like the US people see the future in coal and natural gas. At here businesses realize they can turn cheap land into power generation. Feels like over there people are completely sleeping on it. And likely will have a VERY expensive correction down the line buying everything at far, far higher prices. Even when we move to fusion countries without power storage capacity will quickly find themselves competing for the parts to build battery farms as prices soar. Could do salt reactors to store power of course but research nearly ended there because lithium is new the coal that will never run out. May be true for the US now with our new finds, but not so much for others.

This is such a simplistic way of looking at things.
I remember years ago how a country could have a drought when there was snow on one of their mountains.
Having something is one thing, connecting it to the rest of the country is another.
Solar may be cheap in building per kw/hr when you don't take storage into consideration, but the transmission costs are mind blowing.
Running that much copper to connect the outback with city transmission grids is many times greater than the cost of the solar generation itself.

We are talking billions of dollars in transmission capacity alone.

US Costs are around $1,502/mile-MW



Here's a great Australian story on renewables:

www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/melbourne-renewable-energy-hub-australia/
$1 Billion AUD for 1,600MWh of Storage

Average Melbourne house power usage is 5,077kWh
So for a billion dollars we can power 319 homes for an hour.
Maybe my math is wrong, but I don't think so.

Another great study:

www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/79236.pdf




Notice that the cost estimates in 2021 showed a decline in costs from $350 to say $260 per kw/hr.
What is the going market price today?

howtostoreelectricity.com/costs-of-1-mw-battery/
$300 to $600 per kWh

My previous post with the Australian project was $625 AUD kwh

Only gonna get more expensive as you wait. Burning gas forever is not-viable as environmental concerns keeps growing, and the youth that ages into voting age opposes it.

And yeah infrastructure is not cheap. But it saves money in the long term.

Singapore seems to have ideas on how to wire shit up since they plan to build there and transmit back to their mainland where it likely then gets stored and transmitted to their people as needed.

The decline in cost presumes demand stays the same. Demand will increase as more countries move to solar, then skyrocket when they get ready for fusion.  Demand alone will adjust the commodity price.  

Meta today saying no to being extorted by Australian Media companies.