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  1. I have finally finished my book with the title Hidden Rivers of Gold which covers the origins of Deep Lead Mining, the technology and challenges, and the final years of mining in the Carisbrook-Moolort area of Victoria which led to huge financial losses and very little gold. Characters involved included the State Premier and a future president of the USA. This was all around the turn of the 20th Century. The book can be purchased through online booksellers including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Fishpond, Booktopia and Angus and Robertson. Prices vary a lot, and some are in US$ so check carefully. The book is published by Echo Books.
    7 points
  2. I assume you mean Dhu fish , not Jew fish which is actually Mulloway. Molloway just means big fish. Mulloway are also a east coast fish and very fast growing. I catch them all the time and they are generally 3-5 years old as a big fish and reach legal fishing size of 70cm and capable of breeding, by 5-6 years they are 90cm or more. They can get to over 1.4 metres and live to 30 years. depending on the area they can grow very fast- here in Port Stephens we are renowned for them and its a major breeding area. The Port is a extremely healthy system , with limited commercial fishing and many areas that are sanctuary breeding zones, we are a giant national park and Ramsar bird sanctuary. We have a hatchery here as well to increase numbers back to sustainable volume following years of over fishing. The size minimum went from 50 to 70 cm, the flesh is sweetest in the 70-90 cm range and below 50 cm are called soapies and have a slight soapy smell and taste. Most of us will return any bigger to the water for breeding, we tend to "encourage" catch and release unless you absolutely want to eat it and treat the fish with respect at all times. I think the WA govt handled this really poorly but the closure of the fishery or at least restrictions are vital or the system will quickly collapse.
    6 points
  3. Many years ago I use to follow F1 quit heavily however having nearly all races in the middle of the night whilst also going to work I lost interest as I became sleep deprived however last year I renewed my interest in F1 being able to watch all races, through Kayo, and not being able to work. The other thing is having a great Australian kid in Oscar Piastri representing Australia to the world driving a Mclaren has been great to watch, becoming an Australian hero to all of us that are into F1. Anyway I imagined what it would be like to Australia if Oscar's car in the Melbourne Grand Prix was painted in the iconic Australian Green and Gold. What a marketing success it would be. So I created a mock up of one:
    6 points
  4. I was part owner of the Fairplay Gold Mine at Higginsville, W.A. from 1972 to 1990, when the mine was sold to a large gold mining company. The brother, his wife and I mined and produced around 600 ozs of gold in that period, utilising the Norseman State Battery (a 10 head stamp mill, owned by the W.A. Govt). Gold was ignored and only worth around $35 oz when we purchased the mine from two old Slav prospectors. But U.S. President Richard Nixon had taken America off the Gold Standard in August 1971, in a staggering display of non-consultative, "executive" Presidential power. It was called the "Nixon shock", and it rattled the worlds financial markets - and led to a rapid rise in the price of gold, now the gold price was no longer controlled by the U.S. We knew this would happen, and purchased the gold mine accordingly. By 1975 the gold price was $160 oz and by 1980, it was over $800 oz, and there was another gold rush on. At that point, our strategy of utilising an under-utilised and cheap source of ore crushing went to hell in a handbasket, as scores of prospectors turned up at the State Battery to crush parcels of ore. A queueing system for crushing was initiated - but even worse - the Govt imposed a very sharp increase in crushing costs to reduce the State Batteries ever-increasing losses (the State Batteries were always subsidised to encourage local employment, bring in gold revenue, and to assist in prospecting work that might deliver new and profitable mines). At that point, we turned to the large (200,000 tonne) tailings dump on our mine, which still held an average of around 2 grams/tonne of tailings. We took on 3 business partners who had experience in heap leaching and cyanidation of tailings, and between all of us, we developed an improved design of tailings leach vats, which proved very effective and very profitable. The benefit of treating tailings was the ore was already crushed very fine, it just had to be set up with the correct pH levels, be able to contain a cyanide leach solution, and to have a simple circulatory pumping system. The addition of activated carbon in stainless steel tanks finished off the treatment process, and it was a very simple job to set up a small, single-cylinder Lister diesel pump to circulate the solution until the activated carbon was full of gold! Then the tanks would be taken into Kalgoorlie to be stripped of the gold, using a caustic solution, by professional carbon tank strippers. The final product, gold "dore" bars were taken into the Perth Mint, which refined the gold to the Internationally-accepted gold bar standard of 99.999 (%) fine gold. After we had re-treated all our gold tailings on the Fairplay lease, we re-treated many more tens of thousands of tonnes of tailings, from numerous other tailings dumps we had pegged. It was a very profitable period for us in the 1980's. Then, after we ran out of tailings dumps of our own to re-treat, we went on to build tailings vats on contract for other operators that needed to re-treat their tailings. We re-treated tailings and built leach vats for well over 2M tonnes of tailings in the 1980's, from as far East as Ejudina, 150kms E of Kalgoorlie, to Burtville, SE of Laverton, W.A. - right through the W.A. Goldfields, to even Marble Bar! It was a very interesting period, and one that was highly profitable, and not a period I'm likely to see again! The sheer pleasure of holding a large gold bar that you've produced and poured, is something that few people experience.
    5 points
  5. Might be a good idea to postpone any flying until your bad vehicle patch has passed.
    5 points
  6. The world needs more Mark Carneys. Luckily he's taken over from Trudeau, who wouldn't have the intestinal fortitude to tell Trump to shove his trade and allies policies where the sun doesn't shine.
    5 points
  7. It's been a while since anything positive was posted in this thread - so to counter the negativity, here's some party photos! SWMBO and I went to a friends party (Christie, and she was 50) on Sat 17th. It was held at a local bowling club and we all had a good time - despite the fact I rarely go to parties now. Christie is a senior ER nurse, she's got a lovely nature. She laid on some great finger food, she had a DJ with some great 80's music, and there was dancing and good general fun. One of the most amusing parts of the evening was, Christie hired a portable photo booth for the evening and it came with a pile of props, and everyone had a ball with it! Christie is the girl in the blue, off-the-shoulder dress, and her daughter Molly (20) is in the white dress with the black images on it. Her younger brother Sam is in all black, and hubby Gary is wearing the check shirt. The images start at the bottom, where setup and testing the day before, produced some interesting "test" imagery, mostly involving Gary and Molly. See if you can spot OT and SWMBO, we're halfway down the images, posing with Christie, and I've got my best Elton John shades on. https://gallery.glowbooth.com.au/view/e85ec5e4-2f3e-4634-a126-076cff8346cd?
    5 points
  8. If lightning hits a dead tree, it will still travel down the tree to the ground (on the outside of the trunk), but it likely won't make the tree explode because of an inadequate level of sap in it. The reason trees explode when struck by lightning, is because the sap is superheated to steam instantaneously. The normal level of volatile eucalyptus oil naturally in the air, is at too low a level to be ignited by lightning. However, in a fire, heated trees close to the fire front can release large amounts of volatile oils that further exacerbates the fire strength. There is a known feature of bushfires, termed "a crown fire". A crown fire occurs in front of the main fire front, and is driven by strong winds, which send the fire front through the treetops, aided by the high level of volatile oils at the treetop level.
    5 points
  9. Nev, Spread the word far and wide, boats are a terrible waste of money, endless days can be wasted on the water seeing birds, dolphins, whales, lots of fish and watching sharks feed on dumb tourists. It's a horrible life and no one should suffer such deprivations. The number of times I have been almost blinded by bikini babes is astounding. Tell the world to stop been silly and never come to Port Stephens, it's horrible- like a frozen gulag. So bad in fact , I am restoring a half cabin 15 ft Cruise Craft, a mere 50 years old. My tortured life continues...
    5 points
  10. I thought I would have a look at what rare earth minerals are used for. Lanthanum (La) Camera and telescope lenses (high refractive index glass) Nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries (hybrid vehicles) Oil refining catalysts Hydrogen storage alloys Cerium (Ce) Glass polishing (phones, screens, optics) Catalytic converters Self-cleaning ovens UV-blocking glass Praseodymium (Pr) Permanent magnets (with neodymium) Aircraft engines (high-strength alloys) Yellow pigments for glass and ceramics Neodymium (Nd) High-strength permanent magnets (NdFeB) Electric vehicle motors Wind turbine generators Headphones, speakers, hard drives Promethium (Pm) (very rare & radioactive) Nuclear batteries (limited use) Thickness gauges Research applications only Samarium (Sm) Samarium-cobalt magnets (high-temperature, defence) Nuclear reactor control rods Microwave devices ⚙️ Medium / Heavy Rare Earth Elements (HREEs) Europium (Eu) Red phosphors in TV and LED screens Anti-counterfeiting inks (banknotes) Fluorescent lighting Gadolinium (Gd) MRI contrast agents Neutron shielding Magnetic refrigeration research Terbium (Tb) Green phosphors (displays) Strengthens neodymium magnets for high heat Sonar and sensors Dysprosium (Dy) High-temperature permanent magnets Electric vehicles and wind turbines Nuclear reactor components Holmium (Ho) Medical lasers Nuclear control rods Precision magnetic devices Erbium (Er) Fibre-optic signal amplifiers Laser technology Pink colouring for glass Thulium (Tm) Portable X-ray machines Medical lasers Radiation sources (very niche) Ytterbium (Yb) Stainless steel strengthening Fibre lasers Atomic clocks Lutetium (Lu) PET scan detectors Cancer treatment catalysts Oil refinery catalysts ➕ Related Rare Earths (Not Lanthanides) Scandium (Sc) Aluminium-scandium alloys (aerospace, sports gear) Solid oxide fuel cells High-intensity lamps Yttrium (Y) LEDs and display phosphors Thermal barrier coatings (jet engines) Superconductors Cancer treatments (Y-90)
    5 points
  11. Land of the free ! Land of free speech ! Land of not-so-original dictatorship.
    5 points
  12. Some silly sarcastic political pictures...
    5 points
  13. This sad event is proof of the new faschist usa. Those ICE 'agents' are heavily armed, are masked (unidentifiable), uncontrolled, and know that they are above the law. Sounds like the infamous brownshirts. Each step that usa takes destabilises the world destroys trust in their country.
    5 points
  14. Meanwhile, an ICE agent shot and killed an unarmed woman in a car who was just trying to get away from the situation (she wasn't an immigrant as far as I know). The FBI, whose head Kash Patel is another unqualified Trump appointee, have taken over the investigation and not allowed local law enforcement anywhere near it. Meanwhile the administration are saying shit like "she was a domestic terrorist trying to kill the ICE agent with her car" despite plenty of mobile phone coverage clearly showing differently. ICE are the new Brown shirts. And the shit in the oval Office is Hitler.
    5 points
  15. Great news! Norway has a solution to the present international jitters. But it might not be welcomed by the major media industry. (Due to stealing a lot of media hysteria.)
    5 points
  16. It's too late! The e-Horse has volted.
    5 points
  17. been talking about it for as long as the Epstein files have been in the headlines
    5 points
  18. The main problem with recycling EV batteries in Australia is that there have not been enough of them to warrant the creation of a recycling plant. This will of course change as more EVs are added to the Australian vehicle fleet. The early recycling plants in the US (there are a number of good You tube videos) have proven that almost all of the critical minerals are recyclable. We just do not have the volume at this stage & that is all lithium based batteries able to be recycled. At this stage old EV batteries are still quite valuable for use as home or commercial energy storage but there are few available & mostly they are from early BMW or Nissan Leaf EVs as well as those recovered from crashed EVs. I imagine the federal and state governments battery subsidies will have the effect of reducing the value of these as well. Once an EV battery gets to about 70% of its original storage capacity, it still has many years of home storage left even though no longer useful in the EV. Add to that the fact that EV batteries are lasting considerably longer than original predictions. I have done just over 35,000km in my 2023 MG4 & battery health is still showing 100% The good thing about all of this is that batteries have a circular life with 96% of materials being recovered during recycling. Compare that to fossil fuels which are used once & then they are gone.
    5 points
  19. We will need fossil fuels for quite some time but the planet desperately needs to reduce its reliance on these if we are going to survive long term. Trump will be gone in 3 years and hopefully the pragmatists in the US will see that renewables and nuclear energy (though the waste is an issue) are the ONLY way forward. The problem is that it is dis-United with so many MAGA nutters and an education system that does not consider facts that are not American or anything that happens outside of America. Hollywood has distorted facts and American war movies always show how Americans won everything. Most believe WW2 started with Pearl Harbour. The fact that if the battle of Britain had not been won there would have been no place to create an invasion force. The Battle of the Bulge was only successful due to Montgomery sending 30 Corps South to stop the German Armour from crossing the Muse & taking Antwerp. US generals were scathing of British meticulous planning, engineering expertise and total concern at reducing casualties through innovation etc and Bletchley park with cracking the Enigma code has never really been acknowledged as most Americans believe they did it. The Poms just sucked it all up as by 1945 they were bankrupt & needed the US so did not complain. Now Trump has changed everything with his team of ignorant rampant neo colonialists and world dominance through absolute power. Things are changing though with the UK & Europe finally beginning the re-arm & get rid of the US dependence. Putin plays Trump like a chap violin & Xi just watches it all while seeing his dominance continue to expand. China out produces everyone especially in new technology with EVs, robots, machinery, solar and wind power and everything else. It is the worlds new high tech factory and no-one can get close now. Those of us in our 70s & more have seen the best of times. We will all be gone in a few years so hopefully human resourcefulness and decency will eventually prevail.
    4 points
  20. You have a point there Jerry about the risks of 18 year old motorbiking. At least in my case, 18 was the year of most risky behaviour and I was lucky to survive it and almost didn't. Things were different back then. No such thing as learner approved motorcycles. We didn't even have learner permits then; once you turned 17 you could get an open bike license and go out and buy and ride the biggest, fastest motorcycle you could afford. As far as risky behaviour was concerned, you could get away with a lot. Police numbers were very small and policing was reactive and rarely proactive. There was no random breath testing (not until the end of 1988), no hidden speed guns (they hadn't been invented at that stage), no random roadworthy pull-overs, no roadworthy certificates; I could sit here for an hour and add to this list. We did have police speed radars but they were very rare and very obvious. It wasn't hard to spot a copper sitting on a chair under a tree with a big radar set perched on top of a small table. We didn't do cafe racing, more like pub racing, high speed pub crawls on bikes. In this district now, the police number in the high hundreds, whereas back in the seventies there was probably only about fifteen or twenty at most and usually only two to patrol the whole district after hours. Riding a bike back then was a bit like the wild west. I bought my first bike at age 14, a BSA Bantam 175cc, although I'd been riding the neighbours Francis Barnett for some time before that. At around 15 I graduated to a 250 Honda Dream for a paddock basher around the farm. On turning 17 I got my driver's license. No written test from memory. In those days we had separate license categories for car, body truck, semi trailer (one category to cover any number of trailers, no separate road train category like now), motorbike, and category G which was tractors, harvestors, graders and all sorts of general machinery. I got them all in one go and the only driving test was to drive our old AA160 International truck down the road and do a handbrake start on a sloping rail crossing. I had a neighbour's little Commer semi trailer lined up for a test, but the copper asked me if I'd driven it and was satisfied with my word that I had (8 miles down a straight, flat road). He also said he wanted to see me riding my first legal road bike, a 1957 AJS 500 single, before issuing a license. He knew I'd been riding it without a license but just wanted to check I could handle it ok. I drove the truck home, got on the bike and rode back to town,. As I pulled up in front of the police station, he was standing there with my license in hand, which he handed to me and said see you later. I never even got off the bike. The joys of a country copper back in the day. These days the bike license is the only separate category you have to have. All the others are covered by the highest level category. For example I have mototcycle and heavy combination (semi trailer). HC covers all those under it like car, body trucks, tractors and machinery. If I had a road train license (multi combination), my license would be only two categories, MC and motorcycle which would cover anything you can drive on the road. Around the time I had the AJS at age 17, I also had a 741 Indian unregistered for a restoration project that never happened before I sold it. After that came the Norton Commando and the 18 year old dangerous period. Other bikes I had over the years were a Yamaha SR500, a Suzuki 50 stepthrough and Honda postie bike. I'm not sure if you'd call the last two bikes, more like toys.
    4 points
  21. Trumps middle of the night rant attacking and threatening Bruce Springsteen for speaking up against him is a good reason for another song remake by the Boss. "Not born in the USA", it could be about Trumps wives.
    4 points
  22. Jerry, one bright spot that's turned the current position better - SWMBO came back from the operation very pleased, because the Doc had avoided a skin graft with a "flap" surgical removal process. This process is used quite commonly now, and many Docs are skilled at it. They make an incision and lift the skin back, then remove the cancerous bit, then pull the flap back and stitch it in place over the area of tumour removal. Done properly, it looks very good when healed. I had the flap procedure done on my face a few years ago, when I had to have a weeping cyst removed from one cheek. It's nearly impossible to see the scars and stitching on my face, so no-one can call me "Scarface"!. SWMBO is home now and resting, no bending over for three days, a need to keep her wound covered in the shower, and back to get the stitches taken out in a week. She's much happier than when she went in this morning.
    4 points
  23. I think they missed a few letters in the title. The full word is "Megalomania"
    4 points
  24. And that is what is driving the US administration. Our problem is more about keeping a safe distance from the unravelling disaster. Please, Albo, keep your head down, below the crazy americans view. Please ditch AUKUS. They are more a liability than a trustworthy ally.
    4 points
  25. Trump WOULDN'T KNOW or CARE about that UNLESS you named (at least) ONE after HIM. Nev
    4 points
  26. A rare-earth mineral is a mineral that contains one or more rare-earth elements as major metal constituents. The rare-earth elements (REE), also called rare-earth metals, or rare earths, are a set of 17 nearly indistinguishable lustrous silvery-white soft heavy metals. The 15 lanthanides (any of the 14 metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers 57–70, from lanthanum through ytterbium) along with scandium and yttrium, are usually included as rare earths. Rare-earth minerals are rare because rare-earth elements have unique geochemical properties that prevent them from easily forming minerals, and are therefore not normally found in deposits large or concentrated enough for mining. This is the reason they are called "rare earths". The term "rare-earth" is a misnomer, because they are not actually scarce.
    4 points
  27. You've got it the wrong way around. You are not assumed to be guilty. Every motorist is assumed to be innocent until the breath or drug tester shows otherwise. No different with the hate speech laws. Stop worrying.
    4 points
  28. I believe it was Passed . People demanded something be done. IF you aren't vocal about sensitive things, why would YOU attract attention. Similarly a breath test is a Minor Inconvenience. Fair enough if it Keeps pot heads and drunks OFF the road, so they don't kill innocents. Nev
    4 points
  29. The POWER of LAW is replaced by the LAW of POWER. Nev
    4 points
  30. We all get caught up in major news stories from time to time. With all the tech & social media "improvements" to our information sources, what can we trust? When you say "the press", do you mean the multi-billion-dollar corporations owned and/or controlled by billionaire oligarchs? Just my opinion, but if you're still consuming, or worse paying for that stuff, it's probably best to quit the habit. These days we have to dig deeper.
    4 points
  31. Donald Trump has graciously accepted the Ashes from Pat Cummins.
    4 points
  32. SWMBO can cut off someone's head with just a few well-chosen words!! 😄
    4 points
  33. If a child managed to stay reading this bullshit they are truly exceptional.
    4 points
  34. There is no doubt that Australains who have not been directly impacted by the recent fire and flood situations are sympathetic to those who have. Merely say that the impacted are in our thoughts and prayers doesn't seem enough. What can we do? Many victims only have the clothes they stand up in. Should we send clothing? Nice thought, but impractical. I volunteer at a charity shop where we receive bags and bags of donated clothing. It is a daily battle to sort through these donations to classify them and prepare them for display for sale. Even when that is done, we have difficulty in storing them. If we wanted to dontate them, where would we send them, and how? Clothing is not the only thing that these victims need. Where's the bog rolls; the baby nappies, the female hygeine products, the incontinence pads? Did you ever think that these might be more important to some victims than a selection of clothing? The National Emergency Management Agency https://www.nema.gov.au/ is a Commonwealth agency whose goal is to lead and coordinate national action and assistance across the emergency management continuum. To do this the agency works with State and Federl entities, Charitable organisations and leaders of the Public Sector to get aid to victims of disasters in the immediate aftermath and later in the recovery period. The best way for individuals to give help is by donating money to funds properly set up through charitable organisations and the like where monetary donations can be lodge into accounts managed by the major banks. The warning that must be given about donating is to never donate following a request made via a communication medium. If you want to donate, it is best to walk into a bank yourself.
    4 points
  35. So many points tocomment upon. I believe that the American influence has not been introduced by police. In my opinion the generations which have come after the Boomers have had their attitudes towards Society molded by what American entertainment media has poured onto them. There is definitely a failure to acknowledge that the exercise of one's Rights as granted by Society has to be balanced by the acceptance of one's Responsibilities towards Society. It is that abandonment of Responsibilities that has lead to Society reducing many previously granted Rights. Should our police regularly carry long arms? Definitely not, for the simple reason that using high powered firearms requires a lot of skill to avoid 'collateral damage'. Gaining those skills takes long and frequent training to do which would markedly reduce the number of police available for the day-to-day duties involved in keeping the Peace. Competency with firearms cannot be obtained through a one day per year revision session on a range under virtually stress-free conditions. I agree that a small police unit of police regularly trained and disciplined in the use of these more powerful firearms is required for those operations aimed at the arrest of person reasonably expected to be prepared to use firearms to avoid arrest. These are planned operations in which each participant has a defined role within the team. Arrest by persons other than Police. I've explained before that anyone can arrest an offender in the act of, or immediately following the commission of an offence. Obviously a security guard would not want to do it because such an action is likely to result in loss of time by the employer if the security guard is required to attend Court as a witness. From my expereince, security guards are mostly just full of piss and wind. The Media. Once again the Media make matters worse by publicising situations when specialist armed police are in action, even if that action is simply patrolling on foot at New Years Eve events. One heavily armed police constable wearing body armour gives a false image when the majority of police are getting atound in cargo pants and shirts. When you see those bulky vests that regular police wear, they are not wearing body armour. The vests were introduced becasue police were carrying too much equipment on their waists and this was causing lower back injury. The introduction of vests was a Work, Health and Safety measure.
    4 points
  36. Back in my (working) day, I had great data security....
    4 points
  37. Sometimes I do wonder about people's ability to think logically. We have yet to buy a replacement for the written off mini. It is really my partner's car and she flatly refuses to drive a manual. Which is a pain in the UK, because most cars - even luxury ones - that are sold are manual. So, after fruitlessly searching for a replacement for her that was in budget and auto, I took a look at some EV cars - as they are all "autos". Used car sellers here work a bit dfifferently to Aus (at least when I last purchased a used car in Aus, which was admittedly about 20 years ago). If you know what you want, you can buy online unseen from a reputable seller and if you're not entirely happy with it whtin 2 weeks or something like 1000 miles, they will refund you in full and take the car back. In addition, most offer 12 month warranties under similar terms to new car warranties. And of course, if the car they sell you has a balance of a new car warranty, that transfers to you (as long as the previous owner/s have kept to the terms of the warranty) and they will make up the difference if the balance of the new car warranty is less than the 12 months. There is also statutory protections as well that the larger used car dealers adhere to without resistance because they work on a model to stack them high and kiss them good bye. They don't make much on the sale of a car, but on the finance. They don't much like cash buyers, but to ensure they get the volume, they do a lot to preserve their reputation. Some of these are not venturing into making the used EV purchase a virtually risk free proces as they see a big market of better value cars and better demand. So I was looking at autotrader.co.uk for cars with bettter than 250 mile range. I selected a few, of which the MG ZS 72.x KW was one, and checked out the ads. The reputable dealers have RAC or AA battery tests performed. Fore about £9K, I was looking at 2021 - 2023 models of varying mileage, but averaging arount 30k miles (50k kms). So much for 10% degradation per year of the battery - most were showing 98 - 99% of life left in them, and the lowest was about 96%. I did some research and, ironically, apart from the mini, the real world ranges were not far off the claimed range - probably on average 10% less than claimed range. The batter checks also stated claimed range and provided estimated real world ranges at 0 degrees c ambient temperature and 25 degrees C ambient temperatures. At zero degrees, it was about 25% less range than at 25 degrees. OK, for the cars I was looking at, and taking into account the decreased range at motorway speeds, I should still be able to get to London without needing a charge and have some in reserve. Sticking it on a charger overnight would have me right tor the trip home and assuming it would be 0 - 100% charge. cost me about £35 - half that of the Volvo and about 2/3 that of the now dead mini. Not to mention the generally lower servicing costs, less to go wrong and therfore more reliability, etc. it sounds like a no-brainer - especialliy when you consider partner's driving - glorified shopping trolley and occasional run to pick up the daughter - on A roads as she doesn't do motorways/highways. So, even then, her range will normally be longer than the average. So, I decided to broach with her the subject of getting an EV. I was met with a resounding "no" at every turn. But no logical argument to say why not. Just "I want a petrol car..." I was flabbergasted.. Why? Eve3rything she read was about EV fires and lack of infrastructure. Also, when we sell this house, she may end up in a mid-terrace house with no guarantee she can park outside to connect the car to charge. OK.. the infrastrcutre down here is not what it is in London. But there is good infrastructure. First the chances she won'[t have a driveway are pretty low. But even on that assumption, I explained the area she was looking at has a public charging point and there is no petrol station for about 10 miles or so heading towards Exeter. So, it would be easier for her if she was low on fuel to get the battery topped up than petrol in her car. Then she said she would use it only hopefully once evry couple of weeks and the battery woudl discharge.. I could have put any number of stats in front of her to say that it would take anything from 6 months to a year to discharge a 72kw/h battery not in use.. and that she could expect the lead acid battery to discharge enough to make the car unuseable loing before that. Still she wasn't having a bar of it. Oh well, she will have to live with it and the costs. But the research I did made EVs even more compelling to me than they were beforehand. [Edit] I forgot to mention, most of the batteries still have 5 years of warranty left and a lot of the cars still had 2 - 3 years of warranty left, too.. Don't get that with the petrol cars of the same age.
    4 points
  38. Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of drug trafficking, was pardoned by President Donald Trump on December 1, 2025. Hernández had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for his role in a scheme that imported over 400 tonnes of cocaine into the United States.
    4 points
  39. The E-horse was a marketing failure. Owners had difficulty plugging in a charger.
    4 points
  40. Philosophy for beginners....
    4 points
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