The totally off-topic thread

[Mal]

Quite a few things are subsidised by Government as private backers are unwillingly to risk the capital. Just look at Solar, Australia has one of the highest uptakes of home solar and now battery technology has caught up which will further change the electricity grid in Australia.

Nope, solar is subsidised by everyone paying Electricity bills. Inefficient, expensive and btw, the promised Tesla cells are rubbish.

 

[drron]

Nope, solar is subsidised by everyone paying Electricity bills. Inefficient, expensive and btw, the promised Tesla cells are rubbish.

And among developed nations the 3 highest priced countries for electricity are-Denmark,Germany,Australia.
Denmark and Germany have the highest proportion of renewable energy.

 

[amaroo]

Solar is terrific if you have it My system paid for itself in under 3 years ... pity the poor sods that have to subsidise my >$4,500 annual tax free payment.

Magic pudding economics - what a joke!

 

[drron]

Have just had a new travel experience.In Admiral's Club at A24 DFW.A woman has tried to enter with her assistance monkey.The agent refused her entrance which was why I noticed.The woman insisted you are allowed to travel with an assistance animal.The agent told her she can take her monkey on the plane but this was a club and monkeys not admitted.
She then had a discussion with the next in line-She has seen miniature horses and pot bellied pigs as assistance animals.

 

[cove]

Solar has been a beauty for us at our warehouses as we mostly work sunlight hours. The work electricity bills have been reduced to modest numbers and yes for us the payback is like amaroo said. Your saving may be different from ours and this is not financial advice......
Changing the topic......Shingles vaccinations are available in Australia so if you are over 50 they say you have a one in three chance of having an attack. Currently 3 of our friends have shingles none of whom were vaccinated. Ouch....it hurts!

 

[coles525]

Solar has been a beauty for us at our warehouses as we mostly work sunlight hours. The work electricity bills have been reduced to modest numbers and yes for us the payback is like amaroo said. Your saving may be different from ours and this is not financial advice......
Changing the topic......Shingles vaccinations are available in Australia so if you are over 50 they say you have a one in three chance of having an attack. Currently 3 of our friends have shingles none of whom were vaccinated. Ouch....it hurts!

(In other news)...

When I was a kid, I got struck with shingles. It truly sux that mrdical professions suggest only when your 50+ you get checked out for things. Especially if male.

 

[anat0l]

"I don't need to be good at maths because I have a calculator."





One thing that kind of got me was why basic calculators have a % key. For example, to find 20% of 80, normally you would type 8 0 X 2 0 % and it gives you the result (16). Yet, you could also just go 8 0 X 0 . 2 0 = and receive the same answer.

Of course, 20% of 80 should be easily done in one's head. Even if you don't realise that 20% is the same as one-fifth (i.e. divide by 5), 10% is just the number divided by 10 (an easy thing to do), then double that.

 

[OATEK]

(In other news)...

When I was a kid, I got struck with shingles. It truly sux that mrdical professions suggest only when your 50+ you get checked out for things. Especially if male.

I had shingles when I was 35! It can strike when your resistance is low, at any age.

 

[RooFlyer]

Nope, solar is subsidised by everyone paying Electricity bills. Inefficient, expensive and btw, the promised Tesla cells are rubbish.

No, solar (and wind) is subsidised by everyone in Oz (strictly by all taxpayers I guess). I'd love to be in an industry which produces a product where the government pays a huge amount of the consumer's cost to buy, even where there are cheaper alternatives.

The foam flecked spittle produced by the rent seekers like Pacific Hydro (for their wind power group) when the government announced a partial withdrawal of the taxpayer teat indicates the extent by which these companies are relying on the taxpayer's coin to flog their wares cheaply to consumers and pay divvies to shareholders (yes, I am jealous that I'm not in on that particular gravy train).

 

[cove]

Oatek you can get shingles more than once. We had our shingles vaccinations in the US before we could get it in Australia.
I don't know why the US suggest everyone over 50 should get the shot when it can hit younger people but that is their stance on the vaccination.

 

[get me outta here]

I'm a bit hazy on the chicken pox, shingles, herpes virus connection. I had chicken pox as a kid so does that mean that I am more or less likely to succumb as it lives in the nerves endings, or some such thing and comes back to bite you when you are physically stressed?

 

[cove]

To get shingles as 98% of the adult population has had chicken pox will make you eligible to be in that one in three chance of getting shingles when you are run down/stressed or your resistance is weakened by something else.

 

[get me outta here]

Really, I had no idea so many people had been stricken with 'the pox', I'll discuss w' the doc next time.

To get shingles as 98% of the adult population has had chicken pox will make you eligible to be in that one in three chance of getting shingles when you are run down/stressed or your resistance is weakened by something else.

 

[Pushka]

We used to have chicken pox parties as the illness as a child is thought to have been milder than as an adult. I'd say most if not all people get it eventually.

MrP developed shingles too. Dr refused to give him the early treatment as he said he seemed to be coping with it. .

 

[coriander]

What's with colouring eggs?

Sigh. Brings back childhood memories....... my mother was German and whenever she cooked hard-boiled eggs (for picnics, school lunches, barbeques, etc., she ALWAYS coloured them. They looked MUCH prettier than plain bland beige eggs.

 

[Deleted member]

Actually it was irony.

Irony or not, no matter how "Bigoted" you believe someone to be, they too are entitled to their opinion and beliefs. I suspect the root cause of much of the "Racist" views expressed in Australia right now , is less about race and more about assimilation and adopting of "Our lifestyle and values". I have certain reservations about the tsunami of refugees occurring around the world. However I am also mindful of the fact that I too am a migrant to this country ( my significant early settler Australian ancestors notwithstanding) The anti mosque debate is more about fear than religious freedom , but consider this. The argument that many refugee immigrants to Australia maintain they are escaping persecution in their home land and seek "refuge" here but still want to bring certain "inflexible" elements of the very culture they seek to escape, is to some , a contradiction .
I have a few ( really fantastic) Muslim friends, and I have met others who frankly need to Return from whence they came, Because they believe we are unworthy and beneath them.
They are , I admit in a minority , but violent , extreme minority views sell newspapers.
I don't hold especially strong religious beliefs, I think that religion aides more problems than it ever solves.
If I were King , I would make food the defining element. As many, if not all contributors to this forum are avid travelers , we tend in my experience to rate much of our travel experiences by the good we eat ( and share).
I have sympathy for the argument that if you want to live here. Then live like us. But it's not my view.
Only when you embrace other culture can you really begin to understand and share in it.
So rather than add fuel to the fire, we might all benefit by first understanding other people's fears, and then work toward helping them overcome them, rather than calling them names.

 

[amaroo]

Solar has been a beauty for us at our warehouses as we mostly work sunlight hours. The work electricity bills have been reduced to modest numbers and yes for us the payback is like amaroo said. Your saving may be different from ours and this is not financial advice......

Don't forget to send someone up there to clean those black beauties ... they don't work so well covered in bird droppings.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Oatek you can get shingles more than once. We had our shingles vaccinations in the US before we could get it in Australia.
I don't know why the US suggest everyone over 50 should get the shot when it can hit younger people but that is their stance on the vaccination.

It's because the vaccination is mainly aimed at preventing the long term complication of shingles - Post Herpetic Neuralgia (PHN)
This is strongly associated with age, virtually unheard of in the under 50's age group.
For those in their 60's, 60% of them will develop PHN. It is a long term, debilitating pain which can be very difficult to treat.

 

[Princess Fiona]

(In other news)...

When I was a kid, I got struck with shingles. It truly sux that mrdical professions suggest only when your 50+ you get checked out for things. Especially if male.

The medical profession does no such thing. We are well aware that shingles can present in younger age groups and treat those cases as well.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Here's some information about the Vaccine in Australia
https://ama.com.au/ausmed/shingles-vaccine-available-plus-50s