Bathurst 1000 postponed until November due to the COVID-19 restrictions
Here
Bathurst 1000 postponed until November due to the COVID-19 restrictions
Here
Adelaide store owner bans vaccinated shoppers from his shop
The owner of 'Gigantic Signs' has banned shoppers who have received the vaccine from entering his store.
Peter King placed a sign in the storefront window of Gigantic Signs on King William Street in Kent Town, Adelaide.
A warning is written in bold red letters telling vaccinated residents they are no longer welcome.
'Do not enter if you have been Covid-19 vaxxed,' the sign reads.
The sign has sparked outrage in the community with residents labelling it unfair. But a legal expert has warned the store owner has not broken the law.
'They can do whatever they like in terms of discrimination law because there's no grounds of discrimination based on vaccination status,' he told 7 News.
Mr King, the director of Gigantic Signs, said Australia's vaccination campaign was 'tantamount to murder'.
'I'm simply making a statement,' he told news.com.au.
'We have here in Adelaide a company that said they did not want to have any people going to their winery that weren't vaxxed and I thought that was grossly unfair and intimidating.'
Outraged shoppers have sworn to boycott the business with many airing their frustration on social media.
Adelaide store owner bans vaccinated shoppers from his shop (msn.com)
Australian technology start-up creates world's most efficient solar cell while replacing silver with copper
Solar start-up engineer Vince Allen knew he and his team had made something special in their laboratories.
Key points:
- An Australian solar company has created the world's most efficient commercial-sized solar cell
- The company uses copper instead of silver to manufacture their solar cells because it is cheaper and more abundant
- Sundrive chief executive Vince Allen says the certified record puts Australia back at the forefront of solar cell manufacturing
Now they have the certification to say they have created the most efficient commercial-sized solar cell in the world.
In the solar world, efficiency is a big deal.
"The fundamental driving factors behind solar adoption come down to efficiency and cost," Mr Allen said.
"Being able to fabricate the most efficient commercial-sized solar cell is an achievement we're very proud of, and to push Australian solar PV [photovoltaic] on a global stage."Put simply, efficiency is measured by the amount of power you generate based on the amount of sunlight coming in.
Want more local news? Sign up to the ABC Illawarra weekly email newsletterTen years ago, commercial-sized solar cells had an efficiency rating of about 14 to 16 per cent.
Mr Allen's company Sundrive has created a cell with 25.54 per cent efficiency, as tested by the Institute For Solar Energy Research Hamlin in Germany – a company that specialises in efficiency testing.
"Prior to that, the record was 25.26 per cent, so we've done a reasonably big jump," he said.
"Point three might not sound like a lot, but to us solar nerds it carries a lot of significance."In the solar world, independent certification is critical if you want to present your results to research institutions."
The key difference: no silver
Mr Allen and his company's co-founder David Hu are passionate about pursuing a method of building solar cells that do not use silver.
Currently, 15 per cent of the world's industrial silver consumption goes into making solar cells.
It is an expensive and finite resource and one Mr Allen has shunned in favour of copper.
"I think what's more significant than achieving the world record is we've been able to do it without silver," Mr Allen said.
"If you look at the commercial solar cells today and the last few world-record commercial-sized solar cells, there's a strong correlation between efficiency and silver consumption."We've effectively broken that trend using copper."
Copper is 100 times cheaper than silver, there is much more of it and it also requires lower processing temperatures, meaning less energy consumption.
Mr Allen says the practical efficiency limit of a commercial-sized solar cell is about 27 per cent, meaning the technology is getting close to its efficiency limit.
"We see ourselves as having a technology that will help the industry grow to its next stage with more efficient silicon solar cells and we see an opportunity to be at the forefront of the next solar adoption wave," he said.
When will the cells be roof-ready?
As a small business competing in an industry with technology and manufacturing, it will take some time before Mr Allen's company is making solar panels ready for installation.
Solar cells need to withstand the Australian climate, come with a warranty and be designed to last about 25 years.
The company recently relocated from Wollongong to a bigger space in southern Sydney.
Mr Allen said it's a long process to have the technology mass-producible, but that is the goal.
"In terms of our timeline, we're planning to have a commercial-sized module containing our solar cells at the end of this year, which is representative of what we could put on a roof or in a solar farm," he said."We're also focused on building our pilot production line by end of next year with panels ready maybe by the first half of 2023."
https://www.xxx.xxx.xx/news/2021-09-...cell/100476152
Sure beats the 'Dog ate my homework' excuse
Daylight Saving has started.
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3 year old Staffy fights back after being bitten by a croc.
.Banjo the staffy bitten by croc on Darwin'''s Casuarina beach - ABC News
Yeh, I saw that news.
Here is a link that works for the story ... Here
Actor a breakthrough for Aboriginal Australia (passes)
Dalaithngu's early films were a breakthrough in many respects.
He was offering his Yolngu culture to the world — a big-screen depiction unlike any that cinema audiences had ever seen.
"[He] has been absolutely critical at representing modern Australia in the cinema, which is, after all, the biggest art form in the world," academic Marcia Langton once said.
"Also, in his own charismatic way, [he was] undermining the stereotypes that were forced upon him."
In 1986's Crocodile Dundee — one of Australia's biggest ever film exports to the American market and a movie he would later decry as "bullshit" — Dalaithngu played the role of Neville Bell, a citified tribal man who had returned to the Top End to perform ceremony with his family.
^ If it doesn't play, it's the first video in the FaceBook Page ... NFSA - National Film and Sound Archive of Australia - David Gulpilil in Crocodile Dundee (1986)
In Storm Boy (1976) he was the lovable Fingerbone Bill, a role through which he captivated the nation's schoolchildren, who watched him teaching his traditional knowledge to a small South Australian lad in the Coorong.
R.I.P. David
^ he has his balls pulled up - he must be worried about something
^^
"What's that, Skippy" ?
"Tk tsk"
"You reckon the head gasket has blown, eh Skip ?"
"Tsk..tk tk tk"
"What ? The overheating caused an exhaust valve to burn out too, and your brother can fix it properly, but cheap in his front yard ?"
"Tk tk"
Last edited by Latindancer; 30-11-2021 at 04:54 PM.
Echidna causes chaos at Bathurst 1000 by scurrying on to the track
A curious echidna caused chaos at the Bathurst 1000 by wandering on to the track and temporarily interrupting the racing in the annual SuperCar spectacular.
The spiky native animal was close to being squashed by a car hurtling around a track at 300km/h in a situation Supercars legend Mark Skaife said was 'just madness'.
The famous race on Mount Panorama on Sunday was yellow flagged and the safety car deployed after the echidna picked a very bad, and almost fatal, time to cross.
Luckily, the critter was spotted in time and its waddling did not end up with it becoming road kill, but not before several cars came came very close to it.
The crowd and drivers breathed a sigh of relief when the echidna made it to the other side and was picked up by a safety marshall.
'In my experience we've seen kangaroos, we've seen horses, we've seen trees and water and bits of cars. We have never seen an echidna,' Skaife said.
'This place is just madness'.
'What an Australian reason for a safety car,' said Channel Nine commentator Neil Crompton.
'There's an echidna on the edge of the racetrack, which we've got to look after.
Echidna causes chaos at Bathurst 1000 by scurrying on to the track
The echidna is doing fine, and looks forward to next years race.
Parrots getting drunk after eating fallen, fermenting mangoes in the Kimberley
Parrots getting drunk after eating fallen, fermenting mangoes in the Kimberley - ABC News
It is the end of the mango season and the fallen fruit is fermenting in the Kimberley sun, resulting in a boozy treat for the local wildlife.
In the past week, Broome Veterinary Hospital has treated a number of drunk red-winged parrots after they have consumed ethanol as a result of eating fallen fruit.
Broome veterinarian, Paul Murphy, said several lucky birds had been brought into the clinic.
“So far, we've seen about half a dozen in total, but there are a lot of them, unfortunately, that don't make it to the clinic because they pass away before people find them,” he said.
Warning: Be cautious if you are a fragile pink
Bin day not half rubbish for Mackay man doing his neighbour a favour
When you ask your neighbour to take your rubbish out for you, you don't expect them to literally take the bin around town.
Key points:
Nick Doherty was at work when he asked his neighbour to take his bin out
Carl Stanojevic indeed took the bin out — to locations around Mackay
He says he did it to hopefully bring a smile to people's faces
But that is exactly what happened when Mackay's Nick Doherty forgot to put his bin out before work and asked neighbour Carl Stanojevic for a favour.
"I can't remember what time of the morning it was, but he asked me if I could take his bin out," Mr Stanojevic said.
He said he suggested several Mackay nightclubs and bars as potential locations to which to "take the bin out".
"He is going, 'Yep, go everywhere' … so I thought, Yep, I'd go everywhere.
"That's what you do for your neighbours."
A screenshot of a text message
The joke started over a text message. (Supplied: Carl Stanojevic)
From there, Mr Stanojevic took the bin out around Mackay, visiting iconic pubs, the harbour, hardware stores, a fast food drive-through, and even the local dump.
The bin phoned home from a payphone booth and even had some fish and chips.
"It was just crazy," Mr Stanojevic said.
"When I got to the harbour, the [rubbish] fellow was there so I grabbed a selfie with him.
https://www.abc .net.au/news/2021-12-23/bin-day-out-for-mackay-man-and-neighbours-bin/100722498
Slow news day.
”It was just crazy," Mr Stanojevic said.”
yes, totally crazy:
Gotta love the humour. Some folk still have a sense of the ridiculous, and I think that’s brilliant
Australian man convicted in decades-old hate crime against American
An Australian man has pleaded guilty to the 1988 murder of Scott Johnson, an American man whose death was originally ruled a suicide.
Scott White was charged in 2020 with murdering Johnson more than three decades earlier. The 27-year-old’s death at the time was dismissed by police as a suicide after his naked body was found at the base of North Head cliff in Sydney.
White, 50, this week at a pre-trial hearing in the New South Wales Supreme Court stunned his legal team when he said he was “guilty, guilty, guilty,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Supreme Court Justice Helen Wilson said White was “very emphatic” and repeated the words “guilty” or “I’m guilty” no less than three times “in a manner which was very determined and very firm, and using a loud and clear voice,” according to the Herald.
On Thursday, White was convicted of Johnson’s murder after an unsuccessful attempt to withdraw his plea. He’s set to be sentenced in early May, facing the possibility of life in prison.
His lawyer said White intended to appeal against his conviction.
Police immediately following Johnson’s death said the doctoral student at Australian National University likely took his own life. That was determined despite the discovery that his wallet was missing from his clothes, which were folded in a pile at the top of the cliff.
A coronial inquest in 1989 found that Johnson – an openly gay man – had taken his own life, and, in a second inquest in 2012, a coroner was unable to explain how he fell.
After years of campaigning by Johnson’s family, a third inquest in 2017 found that the cliff from which Johnson fell was not only a popular spot for cruising, but was also known to be frequented by anti-gay gangs.
It was then ruled by State Coroner Michael Barnes that Johnson “fell from the cliff top as a result of actual or threatened violence by unidentified persons who attacked him because they perceived him to be homosexual.” The judge in the case ruled that Johnson was the victim of a gay hate crime.
The following year, a 1 million Australian dollar reward was offered by police for information into Johnson’s murder. Shortly before White’s arrest in 2020, Johnson’s older brother Steve matched the reward.
“I think he deserves what he has coming to him,” Steve Johnson told reporters after White pleaded guilty, according to the Associated Press.
“It’s a very sad, tragic thing that he did,” he said.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
The Wide, Brown (and sometimes fucking hot) land
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Australia has matched its hottest ever recorded temperature, with parts of Western Australia scorching at over 50C on Thursday.
It's the first time this century an Australian community has topped this temperature, with heat waves felt in WA's north-west, Weatherzone says.
Good on 'ya Nokia News
In the town of Onslow temperatures hit 50.7C, matching the hottest day on Australian record, originally established in Oodnadatta, in South Australia in 1960.
Other regions in Western Australia felt temperatures of 50.5C, equal to the second hottest day ever recorded in the country.
The 50.5C reading was felt in Mardie and Roebourne, also in the state's north-west, and is the hottest day recorded in 60 years.
Western Australia weather: Australian temperatures top 50 degrees, matching hottest day ever recorded, climate change a likely factor
2022 Australia Day Lamb Ad.
I've only seen the shorter versions on the TV which some across as crap/bland/reaching for the remote.
The full version, 3 mins however is better. Below ...
Oh, the last bit is the Western Australia Premier who has had the WA/Rest of Australia border closed for, like forever.
Oh-Oh ... even Snubby gets a cameo
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