Inuendo Done Right

Fail-Safe Nuclear Power

Cheaper and cleaner nuclear plants could finally become reality—but not in the United States, where the technology was invented more than 50 years ago.  Over the next two decades China hopes to build the world’s largest nuclear power industry. Plans include as many as 30 new conventional nuclear plants (in addition to the 34 reactors operating today) as well as a variety of next-generation reactors, including thorium molten-salt reactors, high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (which, like molten-salt reactors, are both highly efficient and inherently safe), and sodium-cooled fast reactors (which can consume spent fuel from conventional reactors to make electricity).

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602051/fail-safe-nuclear-power/

Woodly Allen At His Finest

https://i.imgur.com/f1DAQ1r.gifv

Why not FTTN?

FTTN, while an incremental improvement on what we have now, is a short-sighted waste of time and money that will still leave Australia lagging behind the rest of the developed World, squandering billions of dollars on obsolete technology in the process.

The Concise explanation

• FTTN is a short-term “stop gap” using old technology

• Most countries that have installed FTTN are now replacing it with FTTP (ie: To the same system as our original NBN plan)

• The investment in FTTN would be largely wasted when the inevitable upgrade to FTTP is required

• FTTN would be almost as expensive to implement in Australia as FTTP

• FTTN’s Speed-to-Price ratio is poor

• FTTN delivers vastly different performance levels depending on location

• FTTN delivers very low upload speeds

The Detailed explanation:
FTTN is a short-term, “stop gap”, using old technology

FTTN is not a new technology, having been rolled out in many areas of the World for over 5 years. Indeed, Telstra proposed this technology for Australia way back in 2005, but their pricing and competition model was rejected by the ACCC, and they decided not to proceed. If they had decided to proceed, there’s no doubt that the urgent need for the NBN would be greatly reduced. FTTN was certainly excellent technology for 2005.

But we are now in 2011. The short effective life of FTTN is becoming apparent, and countries which previously installed FTTN systems (like Germany, New Zealand and the UK) are now gradually replacing their networks with Fibre to the Premises (FTTP).

So Malcolm Turnbull is effectively suggesting that we roll out a cheaper, short-term network instead of leap-frogging it for the NBN. He’s suggesting we roll out a network that other countries have already decided is inadequate, and are replacing. And that is the first crux of the FTTN debate: It is unarguably a stop-gap solution. Even manufacturers of FTTN equipment say this, admitting they expect FTTP to be the standard within 10-15 years.

Given that it will take 10 years to roll out FTTP in Australia, to step backwards to FTTN at this stage would be an incredible waste of time and money.

In New Zealand, their relatively new FTTN network only delivers an average peak speed of 13Mbps for its users. This is only 40% higher than the current average speed available in Australia, and a fraction of the initial speeds available over a full FTTP network.

Any investment in FTTN would be largely wasted when the inevitable upgrade to FTTP is required

FTTN isn’t really a pathway to later upgrades to FTTP. Most of the systems deployed for FTTN will not be reused, and so would be wasted. FTTP uses about 1/3 the number of street cabinets as FTTN, and those cabinets are about 1/4 the size of FTTN cabinets (Think esky versus refrigerator). FTTP nodes also don’t require electrical power, unlike FTTN cabinets. All of the DSL systems that go along with FTTN are also wasted.

All of the considerable labour costs of rolling out FTTN, such as fibre installation, cabinet installation, electrical labour, fibre splicing, copper upgrades etc are all wasted when moving to FTTP. Worse, it will cost more money to remove the redundant FTTN architecture and electrical systems when FTTP is rolled out.

The only portion of an FTTN network that could potentially be reused would be sections of the fibre run to the nodes. But even this would have to be cut, added to, re-spliced and extensively modified to upgrade to an FTTP system.

In other words, FTTN will cost money to roll out, have a short useful life, and cost more money to remove and replace. Of the estimated network cost of FTTN of about $15 billion, almost none adds any value or reduces the expense of a future “upgrade” to an FTTP system, so it’s money down the drain.

To quote Mark Newton from Internode:

“FTTN doesn’t bring FTTP any closer, but it does push it several billion dollars further away….there’s no upgrade path from one to the other. This notion that FTTN is a “stepping stone” to something else is pure fantasy. If an FTTN network is built you’d better like it, because it’ll be around for a long, long time to come.”

In practise, FTTN would be almost as expensive to implement as FTTP

While in theory FTTN is a cheaper option, that only applies if it’s done by the incumbent telecommunications provider. In other words, Telstra. Without Telstra’s co-operation, an FTTN network would likely cost almost as much as the NBN.

According to The Australian Government, assorted communications consultants, and former Telstra executives interviewed for a 4 Corners programme on the NBN, the total cost of an FTTN network covering ~95% of Australia would have been $30-35 Billion dollars. This comprised $15 billion for the network construction, plus a further $15-20 billion for compensation to Telstra for taking their copper network.

Considering the total NBN cost is $36 billion (including several billion for rural wireless and satellite services), spending $30-35bn on a vastly inferior FTTN system is hugely inefficient, without even considering the fact that additional funding would be required for wireless and/or satellite services for the final ~5%.

FTTN’s Speed-to-Price ratio is poor

To support his argument, Malcolm Turnbull cites a 2007 Alcatel Lucent paper entitled “Deploying Fiber-to-the-Most-Economic Point”.

Even leaving aside the cost of procuring Telstra’s copper network (discussed above), the paper reveals that to deliver a 25Mbps FTTN network would cost 50% of delivering a 72Mbps FTTP network. In other words FTTN is far more expensive than FTTP on a cost-per-megabit scale, costing 50% less money but delivering only 35% of the performance.

The paper also reveals that deploying FTTP in greenfield estates (ie: new housing developments) costs the same as FTTN. In fact, it specifically says “The lowest cost solution with the highest bandwidth in a greenfield, single dwelling unit application is PON (FTTP)…. Due to its bandwidth superiority, PON should be deployed in greenfield, single dwelling unit situations with rare exception.”

For Brownfield overbuild situations (ie: existing premises), it’s support of FTTN is based on three major assumptions:

1. It assumes that there is no cost to access the existing copper network; and

2. That it is only suitable for “modest bandwidth needs, [of] less than 40 to 50 Mb/s”; and

3. That it’s suitability is “predicated on the maximum anticipated distance between the subscriber termination and FTTN system…[being] kept within the acceptable limits of rate versus reach”.

In other words, Malcolm’s plan doesn’t make any economic sense whatsoever. Any Government plan requires payment to Telstra to access the existing network, adding costs. There is no chance that a network providing “less than 40Mbps” will meet requirements in 10 years time, and in our sprawling suburbs, the chance of keeping nodes within the “acceptable limits of reach and rate” are very slim, and add additional costs.

FTTN delivers vastly different performance levels depending on location

While FTTP is essentially unaffected by distance, the same cannot be said for FTTN. For that system, the achievable speed is all about distance. Take a look at this graphic, showing the speed dropoff of various DSL technologies over distance:

DSL speed falloff over distance

The above speeds for VDSL2 assume 2 pairs of copper wire (known as bonding), which most homes in Australia don’t have and VDSL1 speeds are over coaxial cable. They should be (approximately) halved for a single copper pair. Therefore:

• At 100m, FTTN could deliver about 100Mbps

• At 500m, that drops to about 50Mbps

• At 1km, it drops to about 25Mbps

Remembering that the distance is the actual copper length (not as the crow flies), a typical FTTN system would deliver maximum speeds of less than 25Mbps, which is in line with the NZ experience of 13Mbps average.

FTTN delivers very low upload speeds

One of the major drawbacks of FTTN is upload speeds. In the case of ADSL2+ FTTN deployments, these are a maximum of about 3Mbps. In the case of VDSL2 FTTN systems, they are typically about 8Mbps. Again these speeds are dependent on distance, so the further you are from the nose, the lower the speeds become.

The NBN will offer upload speeds of up to 400Mbps.

The importance of upload speeds is often overlooked, but it is a vital component of any interactive broadband connection. Whether it be two-way, high quality video communication (such as for conferencing, eHealth or remote learning), for cloud computing services/remote backups, or for telecommuting.

FTTN does not provide sufficient upload speed for any of these services to be delivered effectively, especially as file sizes and bandwidth requirements grow into the future.

The Bottom line

FTTN would have been a great idea 10 years ago. But now, it’s out of date. Countries around the World are already beginning to replace their FTTN networks with FTTP. The NBN is our opportunity to leapfrog these countries, and save the billions of dollars associated with the double-upgrade. Economists have been suggesting we do this since 2007!

FTTN, while an incremental improvement on what we have now, is a short-sighted waste of time and money that will still leave Australia lagging behind the rest of the developed World, squandering billions of dollars on obsolete technology in the process.

https://nbnmyths.wordpress.com/why-not-fttn/

Frog in Boiling Water Fable

If you plunge a frog into boiling water, it will immediately jump out. But if you place the frog into cool water and slowly heat it to boiling, the frog won’t notice and will slowly cook to death. So claims the myth. Indeed, everyone—from corporate consultants to politicians to environmental activists—cites the frog fable as proof that people often don’t see change happening and cannot deal with it in the aftermath.
As with most myths the facts simply don't line up with reality, read more here: http://conservationmagazine.org/2011/03/frog-fable-brought-to-boil/

White Australian Christian Terrorist

That's ol' mate Phillip Galea on the left (stay classy..)

Nothing to see here, no Muslims involved just a white guy doing white guys things.  Move along.  You will be informed if you are required to become inflamed to hatred by the Murdoch press.

More here: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/07/terrorism-raids-arrested-man-believed-to-be-a-member-of-reclaim-australia

Sandle Socks (So Bad They're Good)

Yes folks, they're real.  So unfortunately: these exist and I know people that would appreciate these for Christmas.  FML

Perspective is Important

Earth and Dark Side of the Moon from 1.6 Million kms

Beatles Groovin' on Abbey Road

Hey Ho, Lets Go!

The D B Cooper Mystery

The FBI this month officially ceased the investigation into the infamous D. B. Cooper hijacking that occurred over 45 years ago. 

A quick recap: In 1971, a man who called himself Dan Cooper hijacked a passenger plane from Oregon to Seattle where he freed the 36 passengers in exchange for $200,000 in cash. As the nearly empty flight took off again, flying south, he parachuted out of the airplane with the ransom, and was never seen again.

More here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

Think eVoting is a Good Idea? Think Again.

It's time to call BULLSHIT on e-voting.  Look, we already have the most secure, fair and inclusive voting system in the world.  It's really no wonder that it's actually called the "Australian System".

So, no, it's not broken and no, it doesn't need to be fixed.

Read more here: The Guardian - Lets put e-voting where it belongs: on the trash heap of bad ideas

Climate Analogues of Australia

Have You Ever Wondered Why Cats Love To Hide In cardboard boxs?

Have You Ever Wondered Why Cats Love To Hide In cardboard boxes?  No, me either.  So its a good thing that the folks over at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, have done all the heavy lifting for us.  They studied stress in shelter cats and found that hiding boxes reduced stress, at least on the short term.

More here: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-cat-stress-access.html

from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, studied stress in shelter cats and found that hiding boxes reduced stress, at least on the short term.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-cat-stress-access.html#jCp

from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, studied stress in shelter cats and found that hiding boxes reduced stress, at least on the short term.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-cat-stress-access.html#jCp

from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, studied stress in shelter cats and found that hiding boxes reduced stress, at least on the short term.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-cat-stress-access.html#jCp

from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, studied stress in shelter cats and found that hiding boxes reduced stress, at least on the short term.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-cat-stress-access.html#jCp

from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, studied stress in shelter cats and found that hiding boxes reduced stress, at least on the short term.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-cat-stress-access.html#jCp

17 Underseen Sci-Fi Films From Recent Years You Need To Watch

There are a number of films from the past ten years that may have been given high marks by critics but have been sorely underseen by audiences. Really looking forward to: The World's End.

More here: http://www.ranthollywood.com/2015/08/22/17-underseen-sci-fi-films-from-recent-years-you-need-to-watch/

How To Open Bottle Without A Corkscrew

Common Misconceptions

David Bowie - Rare "Ziggy Stardust" Cassette Tape

Very rare and therefore very collectable cassette from Canada (yada, yada, yada). Hang on, that gives me an idea for my groovy new TV/Radio/Cassette combo...

The Adverts - Gary Gilmores Eyes

Gary was actually quite keen to be executed as he was, after all, a complete nutter.  Great clip from an important 70's punk band.

Gramox vertical record player

This is a ridiculously cool idea.. aaaand it works!

Earth Has A Quasi-Satellite

Einstein Lecturing

The Photos - Do You Have Fun

The Photos are one of those bands that you just wish had really made it big.  Their debut album was a cracker but a series of unfortunate events conspired to prematurely end their career.  Anyhow, enjoy this nugget.  (Wendy Wu - whoo hoo!)

Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio

It's an oldie but a goodie: Raadio, Raadio!!!

Groovy Baby, Yeah!

Proton Mail

A handy alternative to US based cloud email providers: ProtonMail

Records on Bones

The Russians really did this to music. Ah, those crazy slavs...

Blue Monday - Orkestra Obsolete

http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/new-orders-blue-monday-played-with-obsolete-1930s-instruments.html

You Can't Make This Stuff Up (No One Would Believe you)

I'm guessing this is: Person dressed as banana...

From the Herald Sun article: "Person dressed as banana disrupts Mitchell Shire Council meeting", quote: "I asked this person to stop but they continued to hand out bananas to people so I was left with no choice but to adjourn the meeting," Cr Marstaeller said.

The Occupation, Day 174...

Oh Tones, you're the gift that just doesn't stop giving..

Gosh A Wooden Hand Cranked Instrument Runs ON 2000 Marbles

You need to see this to believe it.  Also: very cool techno tune.

Read the full article here: http://gizmodo.com/wooden-hand-cranked-instrument-runs-on-2-000-marbles-1762354800

Princess Leia Costume Sells For $90,000

RAGEagain

Play any RAGE episode from 1998 through to current.  Uses YouTube to recreate every episode via the ABC Rage playlists (actual video may not be the one played on Rage).

Bowie In His Own Words - Highlights From TV Interviews

Bowie's Life In Pictures

David Bowie's life and career in pictures