Modern Chinese-made fluoro tubes are almost transparent because the phosphor coating is so thin. Back when I was an apprentice, the boiler station at the hospital I worked at had a mix of six and eight foot fluoro fittings. Each tube had the gold band down the side to assist with rapid starting in winter. The tubes just went on and on. Some were still in service from when the boiler station was built, in the late 1960s. In areas with more modern tubes, they were replaced more often, and, the T8 tubes do not like being put into rapid start fittings - they are only suitable for switch start fittings.

Australia has once again started making hospital patient beds

With pandemic coverage on TV, have you ever seen those fancy 'Stryker' brand mobile hospital beds in US? Goodness knows what they cost? Don't see them in England with NHS budgeting. They are made in Michigan which has diverse automotive supply manufacturing, not yet deindustrialised like California, Australia...

Deindustrialised ??? Ain't that the truth !

Yeh! And if we were to be invaded about the best we could do is throw tinnies at them as most of our aircraft are being worn out in the Middle East.

NewVista, do you mean the yellow patient trolleys used in ambulances which have an electric up-down?

If so, they are about $40,000 each and are getting quite popular here. It beats me where the money is coming from for them. They, and the special tracks they attach to on each ambulance are fitted to all emergency ambulances plus the patient transport fleet.

Marc, I doubt this country will ever be invaded by any country. Australia is too big and too far away for it to be possible. Our armed forces are small but the problem for an invading country is that they don't have the means to send enough troops here to mount a force big enough to overwhelm what we have.

We are lucky that the only country that could come close to doing it is our closest ally.

Brad Modern warfare does not work that way anymore. Land invasions are thing of the past, That's not how war is fought anymore.
Not that I'm saying China is coming to get us. Even though they have more than enough to do the job easily if they wanted too. What stops the superpowers going to war is the MAD Strategy of .Mutual(ly) assured destruction (MAD) and at this stage, our ally is the USA .But China has the capabilities to wipe ever city off the Map in the USA and the USA has that same ability to return the firepower. This theory is what has kept us from all-out war for years..
The theory of a Non-nuclear war is that it would develop into nuclear war very fast and so the MAD strategy falls into place there too. about a year ago China developed a Nuclear Missile that is capable of destroying 10 cites. It is one missile that fires 10 nuclear warheads Plus fake decoys, They also have vibration missiles that explode and the vibration kills living things without poisoning the area where the missile exploded.
Quite appropriate that the whole theory is called MAD!


Pete

Most long range intercontinental missiles owned by Russia and the US already have the capability. China tends to copy Russian technology when developing their own hardware. Australia doesn't possess long range missiles that I know of. If we did it would trigger a regional arms race. That said, if the threat escalated, they could easily be purchased off the US even if they only had conventional warheads.

In a war, you only have to hit the premises that the head of state resides in and then the army of that nation is useless, so a nuclear deterrent is not needed. This follows a precedent set by the Germans in WWI. A nation doesn't have to be as powerful as its enemy to make a difference. The tactics used make the difference. In the battle of Jutland, the Royal Navy had 77 battleships and battlecruisers and hundreds of destroyers and corvettes fighting the German High Seas Fleet. The Germans had half that number of each class of ship. The Royal Navy won the battle but lost a larger number of capital ships than the Germans did. As a result of the battle, both sides agreed that a rematch was not a good idea.

The ways of fighting have indeed changed but the motivation for going to war in the first place hasn't. There needs to be a return on investment. If that wasn't considered the world would model international relations on how things are done in the Middle East.

China's long-range Missiles now have a 15,000 klm Range .... A few years back they also demonstrated the ability to bring down USA safellites when they fired a long-range missile at their own satellite to demonstrate its no longer an issue to bring a US Satelite down. The USA depends on  Satellites for wartime communication  The Chinese military has become so advanced that it will soon out gun the US ,  Even now its believed that if there was a war in the South China sea or in Asia at the moment the Chinese would win hands down, Mainly because of there position 

If you want a scare look up Basa fish farming in China.
If you do I guarantee you'll never eat it again.
The fish farmed come out a murky brown and are then bleached white to make them more attractive to buyers.

they are about $40,000 each

Was thinking of their fancy in-ward models. Stryker I see are in Syd. next to Nth Shore Private Hosp. (they have private Hosp. prices!)

Stryker is on Herbert Street. There's a few medical companies in the area though most are at Nth Ryde. I think they are making the beds in WA though.

Pete, I wouldn't be too worried about what the Chinese are boasting about. Yes, they did shoot one of their expired satellites and they got into a lot of strife because of it, as it has sprayed space junk into the orbits of other satellites and there is a treaty of some sort that is supposed to prohibit it.

A lot of their military hardware is based on old tech or is simply made with the same cavalier approach as the Chinese make most other things. The J-15 fighter aircraft that they have on their carriers ain't much chop, the pundits say. It cannot take off at full weight because their carriers aren't long enough. They have other planes but they are either not suited to carrier operations or have other issues.

The other thing is that aircraft carriers generally do not sail alone. They require a destroyer escort to provide a full suite of anti-aircraft and anti-submarine protection. It was said the other day that even one of our subs could sink it. This information is correct - a Collins submarine carries four more torpedoes than the next best armed conventional submarine, Russia's Kilo-class. Only one Mk48 torpedo is required to sink any ship on the high seas. The warhead explodes below the keel and effectively breaks the ship's backbone and if it misses it can about face and have another go automatically. These torpedoes have a certain level of stealth these days too and are almost as quiet as the submarines they come out of, which include all of the US subs, Brazil, Australia and Holland.

Brad , oh No , I'm not concerned about the chinese coming here with ships and bombs ,, They are already here anyway !
Chatswood ! Chinawood ! Easter da wood ,, he he he

Yeah, there's plenty there, that's for sure, and Harry is building nice tall blocks of flats to fit more in, especially around the Noth West rail line. And, look at Rhodes next time you are in town - all the factories: Allied Feeds, CSR, Union Carbide, Philips and the Tulloch railcar joint, all gone and replaced with blocks of flats - big ones. When I was a kid, the tallest building in the area was Concord Hospital. In ten years, you won't even see it on the skyline.

I was Born in Ryde Hospital near Eastwood shops , A friend of mine still lives in Eastwood and he said,when the Coronavirus drama started the streets of Eastwood and West Ryde were empty! !! When I lived in Sydney I spent a lot of time over that way , But its unrecognisable from when I was a boy , But even as boy west Ryde was a Dive and had a bit of a bad name, I lived in North Ryde just near where channel 10 use to be ., But mum sold that house and bought another in the snowy

Pete

The fish farmed come out a murky brown and are then bleached white to make them more attractive to buyers.

I only ever buy fresh fish and only Oz or NZ catches.