Driving penalties to get tougher

[Ixion]

Next time you go shopping, tell the shopkeeper that you will only purchase things that didn't make the journey by road. Your diet of fuck all & fresh air will be of great benefit to your waistline.
The things in your house or business didn't get there on a train.

They could do. I can remember when they often did. Markets, and businesses clustered around siding, companies had their own sidings. Train to the siding, then human or horse for the last (short) bit.

But it was very very inconvenient. and limiting. Today we do not accept inconvenience. The private car, and truck is just so much SIMPLER.

[Ocean1]

Yeah they are getting a new 500MW coal fired station every week, and not one of those new clean burning ones either, the proper planet destroying ones..... and yet no one is pressuring them to utilise clean technology in their rush to catch up to the "developed" world.

Meanwhile NZ will be having blackouts next winter.

They don't believe that to be the case.
Oh they're not extraordinarilly advanced "next generation" technology.
But they're an order of magnitude better than the ones they're replacing. And yes they're decommissioning the old ones in direct proportion to the capacity of the new ones.

And they don't have the shear volume of rainfall dropping anywhere near the vertical fall we have here. What they do have is huge quantities of low grade coal. To watch it barged down the Yangtze is quite amazing. We, at least have clean(er) choices, we've simply declined to pay for them...

[sAsLEX]

And they don't have the shear volume of rainfall dropping anywhere near the vertical fall we have here. What they do have is huge quantities of low grade coal. To watch it barged down the Yangtze is quite amazing. We, at least have clean(er) choices, we've simply declined to pay for them...

You think Hydro is the answer for us?

You try build a Hydro station, I will come visit you in court in ten years time as you battle for resource consent.

[jafar]

They could do. I can remember when they often did. Markets, and businesses clustered around siding, companies had their own sidings. Train to the siding, then human or horse for the last (short) bit.

But it was very very inconvenient. and limiting. Today we do not accept inconvenience. The private car, and truck is just so much SIMPLER.

They could get from one town to another by train, to get from the train to you your 'product' had to be moved by road. Truck or horse & cart were & still are the only viable option.
Also a lot of the country isn't serviced by rail & the number of smaller centres that have a rail link is getting fewer. I would suggest that your chances of getting freight off trucks & back onto rail are nil.
Rail has its strength in moving bulk commodity over a long distance. For shorthaul it is virtually useless.

[Ocean1]

You think Hydro is the answer for us?

You try build a Hydro station, I will come visit you in court in ten years time as you battle for resource consent.

Part of one, yes.

No ta. Political stupidity don't count as an engineering constraint dude, that's someone elses problem to handle.

[sAsLEX]

Part of one, yes.

No ta. Political stupidity don't count as an engineering constraint dude, that's someone elses problem to handle.

Which river would you dam?

Which ecosystem would you kill?

How would you offset the carbon from the rotting biomass that you cover, and that continues to settle in the lake?

How would you replicate yearly flooding cycles to avoid damaging the river downstream as well as upstream of the dam?



It aint politics dams just aint that green.

[Ocean1]

Which river would you dam?

Which ecosystem would you kill?

How would you offset the carbon from the rotting biomass that you cover, and that continues to settle in the lake?

How would you replicate yearly flooding cycles to avoid damaging the river downstream as well as upstream of the dam?



It aint politics dams just aint that green.

Have that conversation with oldrider, I'm not convinced burning oil or coal is a better idea and that's really the only currently viable alternative we could hope to afford.

Having said that I'd support some of the longer term blue-sky technology, partly because while the costs are high the returns are potentially attractive, and partly cos I'm a confirmed technophile.

[Ixion]

They could get from one town to another by train, to get from the train to you your 'product' had to be moved by road. Truck or horse & cart were & still are the only viable option.
Also a lot of the country isn't serviced by rail & the number of smaller centres that have a rail link is getting fewer. I would suggest that your chances of getting freight off trucks & back onto rail are nil.
Rail has its strength in moving bulk commodity over a long distance. For shorthaul it is virtually useless.

Not always. Back in the day, many many businesses (factories etc) had their own siding . Essentially, their own bit of railway. The train drew up right at (often inside) the factory and the goods were loaded or unloaded directly from warehouse to train or vice versa. They built the factories around the rail lines. But that was long ago, it doesn't apply nowdays, as you say . Remember too the rail network , even in NZ , was far far greater in reach back then. All the small branch lines and spurs were closed years ago. When trucks became reliable enough to be a more convenient alternative. Rail just couldn't hack it.

[Ixion]

Have that conversation with oldrider, I'm not convinced burning oil or coal is a better idea and that's really the only currently viable alternative we could hope to afford.

...

Nukes. Viable on every basis except political . Still need some hydro for balancing, nukes is hard to regulate.

[sAsLEX]

Have that conversation with oldrider, I'm not convinced burning oil or coal is a better idea and that's really the only currently viable alternative we could hope to afford.

Having said that I'd support some of the longer term blue-sky technology, partly because while the costs are high the returns are potentially attractive, and partly cos I'm a confirmed technophile.

Wind is finicky and useless for large scale generation.

There is something that is predictable and we have in abundance that should not be too hard to tap, and that is the wicked tides and currents we have in the cook straight and the sounds there.

Nukes. Viable on every basis except political . Still need some hydro for balancing, nukes is hard to regulate.

There through life costs are pretty big though, just ask the U Kas they now dismantle theirs.

A few undersea turbine farms could hold us over for a few years.

[Ocean1]

Wind is finicky and useless for large scale generation.

There is something that is predictable and we have in abundance that should not be too hard to tap, and that is the wicked tides and currents we have in the cook straight and the sounds there.




There through life costs are pretty big though, just ask the U Kas they now dismantle theirs.

A few undersea turbine farms could hold us over for a few years.

Yes, someone mentioned an experimental project for the Wgtn south coast. Don't know anything about it but there's certainly huge quantities of water flowing throught the straights on a reasonable regular basis.

It'll slow the planet's rotation down thought dude, and the curtains will fade quicker...

[sAsLEX]

Yes, someone mentioned an experimental project for the Wgtn south coast. Don't know anything about it but there's certainly huge quantities of water flowing throught the straights on a reasonable regular basis.

It'll slow the planet's rotation down thought dude, and the curtains will fade quicker...

Just like how the weight in the Three Gorges Dam lake has tilted the earth?

[Ocean1]

Just like how the weight in the Three Gorges Dam lake has tilted the earth?

Don't be rediculous. They don't use curtains.

Was there last month btw, went up the ship-locks, impressive.

Also impressive that they've moved 1.3M people 120M up the shoreline.

[jrandom]

Would radar penetrate a helmet shell.

Not if you lined your helmet with foil!

[sAsLEX]

Not if you lined your helmet with foil!

Serious answer yes.

Most radomes, you know the big dome things you see on ships, cover the spinning radar assembly to protect them from the weather, and most helmets are of similar construction.

But depending on the strength of the emitter I would tend not to put it next to my head.......... mmmmmm helmet feels a little warm today