Slashdot reader sonlas shared this report from the BBC:
Australia has announced it will ramp up its extraction and use of gas until “2050 and beyond”, despite global calls to phase out fossil fuels. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government says the move is needed to shore up domestic energy supply while supporting a transition to net zero… Australia — one of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas — has also said the policy is based on “its commitment to being a reliable trading partner”. Released on Thursday, the strategy outlines the government’s plans to work with industry and state leaders to increase both the production and exploration of the fossil fuel. The government will also continue to support the expansion of the country’s existing gas projects, the largest of which are run by Chevron and Woodside Energy Group in Western Australia…

The policy has sparked fierce backlash from environmental groups and critics — who say it puts the interest of powerful fossil fuel companies before people. “Fossil gas is not a transition fuel. It’s one of the main contributors to global warming and has been the largest source of increases of CO2 [emissions] over the last decade,” Prof Bill Hare, chief executive of Climate Analytics and author of numerous UN climate change reports told the BBC… Successive Australian governments have touted gas as a key “bridging fuel”, arguing that turning it off too soon could have “significant adverse impacts” on Australia’s economy and energy needs. But Prof Hare and other scientists have warned that building a net zero policy around gas will “contribute to locking in 2.7-3C global warming, which will have catastrophic consequences”.

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A radioactive capsule that was reported lost in Western Australia on January 25 has been found. The BBC reports: On 25 January, when mining company Rio Tinto reported that one of their Caesium-137 radioactive capsules had gone missing, Western Australian authorities faced a seemingly impossible task. They had to locate a pea-sized capsule anywhere along a 1,400km (870 mile) route stretching from the Gudai-Darri mine in the north of the state to a depot just north of Perth’s city centre. Authorities sprung into action, mobilizing specialist search crews to look for the capsule, with firefighters among those asked to foray from their usual summer tasks. […] Before notifying the public to the threat, on 26 January, authorities began searching in Perth and around the mine site in Newman.

On January 27, an urgent health warning was issued to notify the public about the risk posed by the radioactive capsule. Health authorities had a simple message to anyone who may come across it: Stay away. “It emits both beta rays and gamma rays so if you have it close to you, you could either end up with skin damage including skin burns,” the state’s Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson warned. By January 27, search parties were in full force looking for the tiny capsule. But they were not scouting for it using their eyes – they were using portable radiation survey meters. The survey meters are designed to detect radioactivity within a 20m radius. Police focused their efforts on the GPS route the truck had taken, and on sites close to Perth’s metropolitan and high-density areas. One site along the Great Northern Highway was prioritized by police on 28 January after unusual activity on a Geiger counter – a device used for measuring radioactivity – was reported by a member of public. But that search did not uncover the capsule.

The next day, additional resources requested from Australia’s federal government had been approved and those overseeing the search began planning its next phase. With the new equipment in Western Australia and ready for use by 30 January, the search ramped up. An incident controller at the state’s emergency services department, Darryl Ray, described the new tools provided by the government only as “specialized radiation detection equipment.” Local media reported that radiation portal monitors and a gamma-ray spectrometer were among the new items being used by search crews. But by the end of 31 January, the capsule continued to evade search crews.

So the next morning, when the government revealed the capsule had been found just two meters off the side of the highway at 11:13 local time Wednesday, it seemed the all-but-impossible had been achieved. “You can only imagine it’s a pretty lonely stretch of road from Newman down to Perth,” Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said at a press conference on Wednesday. “You can’t help but imagine there was an element of surprise from the people in the car when the equipment did spike up.” While hesitant to give the exact location the radioactive capsule was found, Mr Klemm described it as “the best possible outcome.” Local media reports suggest it was found some 74km from Newman – so around 200km from the mine site. No one appeared to have been injured by the capsule, according to authorities, and it did not seem to have moved from where it fell. Mr Klemm said the additional resources from the federal government proved key to finding the capsule.

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The Australian city of Melbourne recently posted QR codes its citizens could use to report grafitti, reports Australia’s public broadcaster ABC.

Unfortunately, someone overlaid “a number” of those QR codes with “alternative” QR codes leading to a pro-graffiti documentary:

The City of Melbourne is investigating how many of the QR codes have been affected and is assessing whether an alternative will be needed in future…. The lord mayor said the City of Melbourne had initiated discussions with Victoria Police and would draw on CCTV footage to see “how we can catch those culprits”. […]

The Lord Mayor did not believe the compromised QR codes had resulted in more graffiti in the city. “I think this is more of a PR effort by the vandals,” she said.

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New submitter IsThisNickNameUsed writes: The Australian Mint has released a coin in partnership with the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) that has incorporated a code-breaking challenge in the design. The coin is to mark the 75th anniversary of the spy agency and incorporates a code with four layers of encryption — each layer progressively harder to solve. “We thought this was a really fun way to engage people in code-breaking with the hope that, if they make it through all four levels of coding on the coin, maybe they’ll apply for a job at the Australian Signals Directorate,” said ASD director-general Rachel Noble.

Fitting the codes on the faces of the coin was a complex process, she said. “Ensuring people could see the code to decrypt it was one of the challenges our people were able to solve with ASD, to create a unique and special product.”

Ms Noble said that while there were no classified messages on the coin, those who crack the codes could discover “some wonderful, uplifting messages.” “Like the early code breakers in ASD, you can get through some of the layers with but a pencil and paper but, right towards the end, you may need a computer to solve the last level,” she said. A total of 50,000 of these specialty coins will be available for purchase from the Royal Australian Mint.

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“Russian hackers have stolen and published the personal data of tens of thousands of employees…” reports the Australian Financial Review.

Government officials have confirmed the breach — part of a ransomware attack — and say the stolen data may even include info on the country’s premier, according to an Australian public broadcaster:
The government said the records of at least 38,000 employees, but potentially up to 80,000 workers, have been accessed in a cyber-attack on external payroll software provider Frontier Software. The data includes names, dates of birth, tax file numbers, home addresses, bank account details, remuneration and superannuation contributions… Treasurer Rob Lucas said politicians, including Premier Steven Marshall, could be among those affected.

The treasurer added the breach potentially impacted “The highest of the high to the lowest of the low and all of the rest of us in between.” Except for schoolteachers, and the Department of Education, who did not use Frontier’s software.

The website publishing the 3.75 gigabytes of data claimed it was just 10% of the total amount, according to the Australian Financial Review, which “understands Russian organised crime group Conti, which claimed credit for launching the cyberattack on Queensland’s energy network CS Energy, published the information.”
Australian Payroll Association chief executive Tracy Angwin said the hack was a wake-up call to employers using remotely accessed payroll systems to ensure they were secure…

Frontier Software said the hacker responsible for the incident was known to employ a “double extortion” strategy, which included encrypting systems and stealing the data.

In another report, Bleeping Computer describes Conti as “a long-lived Ransomware as a Service operation” that “still manages to evade prosecution even after high-profile incidents against vital national resources such as Ireland’s Department of Health.”

The gang is believed to be behind the recent revival of the notorious Emotet botnet, which could lead to a massive new wave of ransomware infections. This week, Conti took responsibility for the attack against Nordic Choice Hotels, a Scandinavian hotel chain with 200 properties.

Thanks to Macfox (Slashdot reader #50,100) for tipping us off to the news.

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South Australia on Sunday became the first gigawatt scale grid in the world to reach zero demand when the combined output of rooftop solar and other small non-scheduled generators exceeded all the local customer load requirements. Renew Economy reports: The landmark event was observed by several energy analysts, including at Watt Clarity and NEMLog, where Geoff Eldridge noted that a number of measures for South Australia demand notched up record minimums for system normal conditions. It was later confirmed by the Australian Energy Market Operator, which noted that “scheduled” demand — local demand minus the output of rooftop solar and small unscheduled generators such as small solar farms and bio-energy — fell to minus 38MW in a five minute period at 1235pm (grid time, or AEST).

Minimum demand is now possibly the biggest challenge for market operators like AEMO, because under current market settings it needs to have a certain amount of synchronous generation to maintain system strength and grid stability. It does this by running a minimum amount of gas generation, and through the recent commissioning of spinning machines called synchronous condensers that do not burn fuel. It also needs a link to a neighboring grid, in this case Victoria, so it can export surplus production.

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