kgwilson

Janus trialled a electric conversion of a diesel long haul tractor unit that could get from Melbourne to Sydney on a single charge or Sydney to Coffs similarly. The original had a clamshell front & the battery was swapped out by Forklift in 15 minutes. The driver though had a minimum 2 hour stand down timeframe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4FjettzOJg Medium size delivery trucks & even long haul tractor units in the city can get a battery swapped in under 5 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlOxqhWbsk4&t=6s

You do seem to have range anxiety and that is normal for most people entering the full BEV sphere. When you have 48% of battery capacity left there is absolutely no need for concern. You can stop at any supercharger & just take as much as you need to get to your destination. I was getting low when coming back from Noosa to home near Yamba. Distance was about 100km & range 95km. I could have slowed down & made it but I stopped at a Tesla Supercharger & got 5 or 6 minutes at 130-140kW which was easily enough to get home at 110kmh & then some to run around town the next day. The last 20% of battery capacity takes almost as long as from 10% to 80% & it is considered bad form by most of us EV drivers to charge beyond 80% especially if someone is waiting. Planning long trips is something we all do as the charging infrastructure is still in its infancy. Back in the early 1900s there weren't many petrol stations & initially you had to buy it in cans from a Chemist. EV public charging is getting better all the time. Range anxiety no longer exists in China as they have the infrastructure in place already. I often plan a stop after about 2-3 hours driving and at a fast charger (50-80 kW) at a shopping centre. These are much cheaper than a Supercharger but slower. I then have a bite to eat, use the toilet etc & when I get back after 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour or so the car is back up to about 80% & I carry on. In my old ICE car I did the same but usually did not need to fill up if I left home with a full tank. I still had to fill up at my destination anyway. A lot of hotels & motels have "Destination Chargers". These are slow chargers like the wall charger I have at home. Some have type 2 cables but some don't so having your own is handy. You can charge the car over night and often it is free. The 3 pin charger that comes with the car is called a Granny charger & in Australia is limited to 8 amps. The maximum size portable chargers are 15 Amps & have a 15 amp plug. You can get a 32 Amp socket installed by your electrician but is will require a 6mm supply cable & you will need a 32 amp 7.4 kW charger. It is better to install a 7.4kW wall charger as it has all sorts of functions allowing you to choose to charge from solar or at off peak etc. My MG 4 is now 3 years old & has a maximum of 140 kW charging capacity. At a 350 kW charger I get at least 120 kW up to about 80% full. The problem generally doesn't lie with the car but with the grid supply to the supercharger. Most don't have a supply anywhere near as big as the cars capacity to charge and have a relatively small storage capacity which will be used quite quickly especially if there are several chargers & they are all being used at once. Note in China they now have 1.5 megawatt chargers for use with EVs having 1000 volt architecture. These can charge the EV from 10% to 80% in 5 minutes. The whole issue with having various apps & cards is a pain. Why they can't just all accept a credit card is ridiculous. I do have an RFID card for a couple of charging outfits & that is simple but it still charges to my credit card anyway. The best one is a company here called Evie & once the car is registered with the company I just plug in & it charges without any other requirements. When finished my credit card is charged & I get a notification & receipt on my phone. Way simpler than getting petrol. With no engine noise and effortless power & full torque from zero rpm your stress levels are definitely lower on a long trip. The RWD on the MG & 50/50 weight distribution provides superb handling & booting it out of a corner is magic. No other hot ICE car can compare. I am sure the Beamer is the same, most likely better. I hate driving the wifes ICE car and especially hate going in to a stinky petrol station.

Natalie Harp is one of Trumps most devoted sycophants. She was formerly the host of Ultra right wing "One America News Network" & has been in Trumps inner circle for years.. https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/361022027/melania-doesnt-speculation-about-trumps-relationship-wi Trump went berserk at CNN reporter Kristen Holmes when she asked Trump “Jon Ossoff said you’d rather travel with your aide Natalie Harp and build the ballroom than do your job as president,” Holmes said. “What is your response?” Jon Ossoff is a Democratic senator from Georgia.

I have just passed 50,000km in my 2023 MG4 Essence 64. Maintenance so far nil except new windscreen after it was hit with a stone. Faults, drivers window stopped working & electric motor under tray bulging. Both fixed under warranty. Service, one at 40,000 km. Just required checks to all components & new pollen filter. Tyres still have 10-15,000 km tread left. Cost to run about $150.00 spent at fast chargers when on long trips. At home charged from solar exclusively from a 32 Amp charger purchased at the same time as the car. That cost $530.00 but energy cost zero. I reckon I have saved between $8-10,000.00 over an equivalent petrol vehicle.

Chinese startup Windrose was only founded in 2022 and planned to compete with the Tesla Semi but like most other Chines EV technologies has already surpassed Tesla. Their latest Generation 2 offering has a 700km range fully loaded & the next Gen 3 model will have a 1000 km range due out in 2028. They have their HQ in Antwerp & plan to sell worldwide. https://www.windrose.ai/ In China though heavy Electric trucks have just surpassed Diesel in sales. There are over 500,000 heavy electric trucks on Chinese roads already.

If you have solar, smart meters are essential as standard meters are unable to deal with feed in tariffs. I am a VPP (virtual power plant) & buy sell electricity on the wholesale market. My monthly average buy price at the moment is 18.3 cents/kWh & my average FIT is 20.3c/kWh. I have a 18.64kWh battery & sell power to the grid usually from 5pm to 7pm when the price is high. This is all managed by my system provider as the spot price is checked every 5 minutes and my system is told what to do. It even curtails my solar production when the battery is full and the spot FIT goes negative so I do not pay for exporting to the grid.

That is her problem. She is a Trump Yes woman, though everyone who works for him has to be that or they are fired. Getting out before that happens is pretty rare. Anyone with a conscience wouldn't work for the orange man but her salary would have been better than she would ever get anywhere else I imagine, plus of course being in the limelight is something very attractive to some people.

If there is no change at the mid terms then that is an indictment on how misinformed and stupid the American public has become.

Australia currently gets around 36% of its electrical energy from renewables & this is increasing all the time as our reliance on fossil fueled generation reduces with retiring assets and increasing wind & solar with some pumped hydro on the way. Our reliance on diesel for heavy transport has to be addressed more urgently now given global volatility and ever increasing cost.

I hope you didn't light a match near the ducted gas!😍

Electric motors typically run at between 85% & 95% efficiency. Energy lost is mostly heat. Older AC induction motors usually run between 75% & 85%. Modern EVs convert over 77% of the energy at the wheels. The rest is lost to heat and friction. Fossil fuelled cars are very inefficient when converting the energy in the fuel to the wheels at between 12% and 30%. Again the rest is lost to heat and friction.

When Cadburys was sold to Mondelez the quality & taste went through the floor and they introduced horrible American flavours. I know in NZ people complained & stopped buying Cadburys which prompted an eventual reversal & return of original flavours though the chocolate quality is still not as good as it was & most likely has more sugar in it. Mondelez also closed the NZ factory & the only site left in Oceania is in Tassie. Hopefully they won't close that & get stuff made in China like everyone else.

That may well have been the case but if he had won he would have been hell bent on pushing for a constitutional amendment to allow him a 3rd term & if that happened the US may have already been at war with multiple states or more likely with itself. That is almost happening now. In a recent Yougov poll 28% of voters believe the 2020 election was rigged and 2/3 of MGAG voters alreay believed the 2020 vote was rigged even before Trumps address. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-17/donald-trump-national-address-ominous-sign-for-midterm-elections/106928662

Trumps address to the nation is the latest example of his desperation. He now says there is evidence China stole the data of 220 million voters and that they meddled in the 2020 election he lost but really won despite multiple investigations and lawsuits all finding him 100% wrong. The problem is that a lot of his MAGA nutters believe him and this is the first step towards declaring a national emergency to prevent the mid term elections from being held. https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/361007861/trump-lays-groundwork-emergency-declaration-ahead-midterms

The only permanent Nuclear waste facility I know of is Finlands Onkalo, meaning "cave" in Finnish, the facility is carved 430 meters (1,411 feet) below the surface in 1.9-billion-year-old stable bedrock near the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. It securely stores spent nuclear fuel using a unique multi-barrier system. It took over 20 years to build & can store 6500 tonnes of spent uranium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onkalo_spent_nuclear_fuel_repository About 400,000 tones of high level waste exists globally with about 12,000 tonnes added each year. Meanwhile there are scores of decommissioned Nuclear submarines in storage awaiting the waste from their reactors to be removed and stored. The UK has 23, The US & Russia have not disclosed numbers or where the waste is stored. Is there a plan to dispose of the waste from the Aukus nuclear subs?

And certainly not and economic decision either.

Sams parents were NZers & his father was in the military & stayed on in the UK after WW2. They eventually decided to return to NZ.

Sam was a great actor and an all round fine human being. A genuine nice guy. I loved his book "Did I ever tell you this" a series of his memoirs he put together after finding out about his cancer diagnosis. Sir Sam Neill I will miss you

Trump never admits defeat in anything he is involved with. He will have some comment and blame everyone except himself and then state that if he'd been able to do x y or z they would have won so really even though it was a loss they won anyway (Just like the 2020 election).

FIFA management has been corrupt for years bowing to the almighty $. They inserted a drinks break supposedly because of the heat but mandated it for all games whether it is hot or cold, effectively splitting the game in to 4 quarters. This not only disrupts the flow of the game & gives players a bit of a breather but and most importantly provides and additional period to rake in $billions from advertisers.

Trump is a Malignant Narcissist. Here is an AI overview A malignant narcissist is a severe, highly toxic personality type that combines standard narcissistic traits with aggression, antisocial behavior, and sadism. Unlike typical narcissists, they actively derive pleasure from humiliating and hurting others to assert dominance and control. [1, 2] Core Traits & Behaviors While the term isn't an official clinical diagnosis, psychologists often use it to describe the most dangerous end of the narcissistic spectrum. Key features include: [1, 2] Sadism: They experience joy and empowerment when causing emotional or physical pain to others. Paranoia: They frequently view others as adversaries and may become deeply suspicious or defensive. Antisocial Behavior: A blatant disregard for rules, social norms, and the rights of others. Profound Lack of Empathy: They are entirely indifferent to the suffering of those around them and lack genuine remorse. [1, 2, 3, 4]

I particularly liked her role in 'To the Manor born". She and Peter Bowles were absolutely hilarious together.

If you are planning to install a battery to store your solar or a complete solar panels/battery system, consider becoming a VPP (virtual power plant). I did & got an additional subsidy on my 18.4 kWh battery of $676.00. I joined Amber as the VPP Manager at a cost of $25.00 a month. Instead of getting just a few cents/kWh when the sun is shining & the rates are low, the system charges the battery till its full & sells the energy when the price is high. My average is 18.2c/kWh. All my costs are at wholesale rates so I pay the same to buy power as the Energy retailers. In Summer when there is too much solar in the grid the sale price goes negative. When that happens & my battery is full, the system curtails the solar production so none is exported. When there is a grid failure somewhere like a power station partial shutdown the spot price can go to $10.00/kWh or even more. When that happens the system will export energy at its maximum rate. In an hour I can be credited more than a couple of months electricity cost while helping to stabilise the grid.

Trump continues to dig even deeper holes for himself. His pathological lying used to just raise eyebrows among world leaders. Now they are giving him back some of his own medicine. He is still insisting Meloni begged him for a photo but she has shot him to pieces with her latest comments. Mary Trump apparently said that his father told him to never accept defeat ever. He still insists he won the 2020 election & just last week walked out of an interview when a Journo stated the evidence was there & he insisted he had evidence to the contrary but has never ever produced anything (because he can't). The US has always exploited its position in every place it has set up a base or even just an embassy. The Yanks were widely despised during WW2 here, the UK & in NZ. Remember the catch phrase " over paid over sexed and over here". There were riots in Brisbane & in Wellington all due to the attitudes of US servicemen & their pompous boss MacArthur. They have rewritten history so many times. For example there were 75,000 British & Canadian troops that landed on D-Day & 57,000 Americans, all the navy ships & most of the landing craft were British & the Yanks stuffed up their landings, refused to use most of Hobarts inventions, took out half the bolts of the mulberry floating harbours so they got destroyed in a storm & had huge casualties & in the battle of the Bulge, Montgomery's 30 Corps stopped the Germans getting to Antwerp after they had over-run the yanks & Patton was too far away . The list goes on. The USA is an empire in decline and it has been for some time. The only thing Trump has been good at is hastening that decline. The sooner the leaders of rest of the World act in a positive way like Meloni & The US leaves or gets kicked out of countries it has bases in the better.

A malignant narcissist, 6 time bankrupt, insecure, compulsive liar & con man. Absolutely nothing to like there.