Straya!

[aufbahrung]

Targeting women and now priests...the most defenceless. Australia doing its thing. Hot weather over that way.

https://www.news.com.au/national/crime/ ... 039107b4e1

Its probably in the genes

[Svartalf]

priests, defenceless? many are predators of the praying mantis group... they have sex and the partner is scarred for life, if escaping with it in the first place.

[aufbahrung]

priests, defenceless? many are predators of the praying mantis group... they have sex and the partner is scarred for life, if escaping with it in the first place.

Like teachers there'll be bad eggs....but this one had thousands forming a lynch mob so was probably OK

[pErvinalia]

If only we had guns here this wouldn't happen.

[L'Emmerdeur]

From NSW: Intriguing opalised fossils of monotremes from (despite the name of the article) the age of dinosaurs.

'Lost Age of Monotremes Revealed by Fossils From 100 Million Years Ago'

As bones encased in rock rotted away, water-borne silica seeped into the crevices, solidifying into opal and preserving precious details for 100 million years. The resulting fossils now provide evidence that there really may have been an Age of Monotremes, before other mammals came to dominate.

"It's like discovering a whole new civilization," says Australian Museum paleontologist Tim Flannery.

"Today, Australia is known as a land of marsupials, but discovering these new fossils is the first indication that Australia was previously home to a diversity of monotremes."

Only five of these rare mammals still cling to existence: one platypus and four echidna species, shared between Australia and Papua New Guinea. But due to their reptilian-like egg-laying feature, it has long been thought these animals evolved before placental mammals like us and marsupials.

...

[T]hree newly discovered monotremes bring the total of fossil species known in this one place and time period to six, proving there really was some diversity among these furry egg-layers. The new finds range from the size of a small possum to that of a cat, Flannery told James Woodford at New Scientist.

Australia's Lightning Ridge in northeastern New South Wales, where the fossils were found, now has the most diverse range of monotreme fossils on record, all from the Cenomanian period between roughly 100 and 95 million years ago.

"Four species are known from a single specimen, suggesting that diversity remains underrepresented. This discovery adds more than 20 percent to the previously known diversity of monotremes," says Australian Museum paleontologist Matthew McCurry.

The paper appears to be open access:

'A diverse assemblage of monotremes (Monotremata) from the Cenomanian Lightning Ridge fauna of New South Wales, Australia'

[pErvinalia]

They are strange beasts

[Brian Peacock]

I'm not saying it was aliens, but...

[pErvinalia]

The opposition party release a "policy" to build 7 small modular nuclear reactors in Australia. First one in 11-13 years. They're fucking nuts.

[JimC]

The opposition party release a "policy" to build 7 small modular nuclear reactors in Australia. First one in 11-13 years. They're fucking nuts.

I hope that Dutton has committed political suicide here. Certainly the Liberals now have no hope of regaining the seats won by teal independents in the last election.

[pErvinalia]

It depends whether people believe the bullshit that these will be online in 10 or so years and replacing coal.

[macdoc]

Ontario Canada might be able to build SMRs with 70 years of nuclear reactors and expertise in place.
Australia would be seriously stupid.
One thing that has always bugged me tho....nuclear reactors for ships are well established....why can't that approach be expanded on....

[Svartalf]

The opposition party release a "policy" to build 7 small modular nuclear reactors in Australia. First one in 11-13 years. They're fucking nuts.

why do they want that, and how the eff can they make plans at such long range?

[JimC]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-19/ ... /103997572

Teased and speculated for more than two years, Peter Dutton has finally revealed his nuclear power policy.

There is still a lot we don't know — the Coalition still hasn't said how much it will cost, how much of the bill taxpayers will foot, or when all the nuclear plants would be built.

But we do now have seven sites scattered across five states, all of them home to former or soon-to-be-former coal plants.

That is no coincidence: it will be key to Peter Dutton's pitch to voters that nuclear, not renewable energy, is the smoothest way to replace coal.

It might sound like a clean switch, but standing in the way are thorny questions of politics, economics, engineering and timing.

Why has the Coalition opened the floodgates to a nuclear conversation, and what lies ahead?

The problem

Australia is undergoing an energy transition.

The main reason is to reduce emissions — both major parties are committed to zero net emissions by 2050, and Labor has legislated a 2030 target consistent with global climate agreements.

But a secondary reason is that Australia's coal plants are fading fast. Several plants have closed in recent years. Eleven of the 18 coal plants we have left are set to close over the next decade.

And those that remain are creaky and increasingly unreliable. Unexpected coal plant closures have been a significant contributor to recent high power prices.

So far, the main alternatives have been renewable — solar, wind and hydro power — and gas, which Labor says will be needed throughout the transition.

But the pace of the renewable rollout has been slow, something the Labor government has blamed on its predecessor's lack of firm national targets and supporting policies.

That is something Labor hopes it is changing with its Capacity Investment Scheme, which underwrites renewable projects to improve their commercial viability and provide investors with certainty. Labor points to figures showing that renewables are now rolling out at a record pace.

But there is still a mountain of work to be done, including new transmission lines and storage capability needed to make renewables work year-round. Labor is just shy of being on track for its 2030 emissions target and local community objections are threatening to obstruct the process.

The proposal

It is in that context that the Coalition now proposes nuclear power.

Peter Dutton and Nationals leader David Littleproud say nuclear would be an alternative to renewables, delivering zero-emissions energy on ready-made sites using existing transmission lines, and therefore avoiding the need for the geographical footprint of renewable projects.

They propose to build on seven sites:


They are undecided between two types of nuclear power: large-scale reactors, like the ones that have long been operational in Europe, or small 'modular' reactors, an emerging but as-yet unproven technology.

The distinction is an important one. Large-scale plants are a 'base load' power source, hard to turn on and off so best deployed as primary, constant generators.

Conversely, small modular reactors could be more easily switched on and off and so could play a supplementary 'firming' role alongside base load renewables, coal or gas.

The Coalition says five of the sites could host either large or small, but the sites in WA and SA could only host small.

[Brian Peacock]

The opposition party release a "policy" to build 7 small modular nuclear reactors in Australia. First one in 11-13 years. They're fucking nuts.

why do they want that, and how the eff can they make plans at such long range?

Buying time for fossil.

[JimC]

Deep down, Dutton and his chums don't believe in climate change...