willedoo

That wasn't the best camp site being soft and sandy but there were no better options. From memory we had to tow the trucks on site and tow them back out to the track when we left. The track was fairly hard as it had served as a rig road a couple of years before and still had the clay surface mostly intact. There was the old rig site with a capped well not far south of our camp site but it was out of bounds for camping. Same with claypans due to environmental restrictions and there aren't many claypans in that area anyway. It was on the first day at work on that trip that I came across Reg Sprigg's original base camp #1 from the 1960's when he did that west/east crossing with his family. It was when he had his Geosurveys company pre Beach Petroleum. I think the claim was they were the first white people to cross the Simpson from west to east. I'd have to re-read the book on him (Rock Star-the story of Reg Sprigg) to be sure but I think they were doing a magnetic survey grid. One of his partners was doing the north south lines. I came over a sand dune and spotted a star picket which survey companies use as permanent markers on lines. When I checked the stamped aluminium tag attached it had the Geosurveys detail on it. There was a bit of debris scattered around and a few old baked beans cans. The beans had long dried up and you could hear them rattle if you shook the can. It had probably been buried and dug up and scattered by dingos over the years.

In the Simpson. It had been a good season, the dune corridors were all covered in grasses and herbage. I can remember coming across a bloke doing a trip on an off road bike. He was on a north/south track that ran up from the French Line and eventually exits the desert on the western side.

Found some old work photos, from around 2011 if the memory is correct. Taken on one of those small Panasonic cameras, a DMC-LZ1 according to the image data. The name Lumix rings a bell. Off to the Simpson for a bit of adventure in these photos:

Some 15 year olds might find it a bit odd that they can watch a 15+ movie containing sex scenes and drug use but they will now be banned from posting a picture of their new surfboard on Instagram. The bill would have some admirable goals but I'm wondering if it's another not so well thought out distraction for the government when the clock is ticking to an election. Well intentioned but maybe more thought could have been put into it.

Albo would have been better off leaving the voice for a second term and instead using that spent energy on something that locks in votes. The social media age restriction bill seems to be a bit distracting for them so late in the term, another one best left for a second term in my opinion. There could be a few lost first time votes there. Would an 18 or 19 year old vote for a government that's just booted their 15 year old sibling off social media platforms.

I don't think it's just the leader. They've been a fairly uninspiring bunch all round. The challenge with being so unnoticeable as a government is how to convince the punters that they are worth a gamble rather than trying something else. If they do lose, I wonder who will lead them. Jim Chalmers maybe.

It's just over 20 years since an Australian prime minister was reelected. By that I mean not reelected to their seat but having led the parliamentary party to two successive election victories. The last was Howard in 2004. I'm not a betting man but my tip is that we won't see it again this election. It could be close but I don't see it going Albo's way.

Short range up to 1,000 klm Medium range 1,000 to 3,000 Intermediate range 3,000 to 5,500 Intercontinental more that 5,500.

Going back to the 1980's when I spent a bit of time in SE Asia I always used that procedure when travelling or dealing with certain people. If you wear long trousers and a long sleeve business shirt and are reasonably dressed while travelling in Asia, people are much more helpful, cooperative and respectful. They really look down their nose on those tourists who travel on buses and trains dressed in shorts, thongs and T shirts. In their culture shorts are what poor people and rice farmers wear and to see tourists dressed like that in situations that would normally call for a better standard of dress is a bit offensive to a lot of locals.

The way that article reads nobody has used ICBMs. The Russians are claiming to have combat tested a mid range hypersonic missile and Zelensky was quoted as saying the Russians fired missiles 'matching the speed and altitude of an ICBM'. You can have a missile matching the speed and altitude of an ICBM but if you don't have intercontinental range it's a mid range missile and not an ICBM. Another aspect is that it would be a waste of ICBMs to use them at such short range as the Caspian Sea to Ukraine when mid range missiles are easily within range capability.

Made in China jeans will always be a problem. If you can track some down made in Africa you should be right.

Julia can stay at my place.

Boris Yeltsin got up to some legendary antics at times. Like the time when he produced it on the tarmac in the USA. He was visiting the US and was fairly tanked when he was leaving. Walking (or staggering) across to his plane, he stopped, flopped it out, and p*ssed on the tarmac in front of everyone. He had a certain style about him.

He's never lived this one down.

Speaking of cheap suits, here's Medvedev dancing in his blue suit. At least Yeltsin was amusing, Medvedev is a total dick.

I can't see Trump's new best friend sticking around for long. Mixing two fragile egos like theirs is like mixing oil and water. There is a lot of difference between them though. Trump is very much a people person and thrives on socialising whereas Musk is very socially disfunctional.

That NV engine in the OP sold within the day. He had $120 on it. Said it was in good condition, turned over but not running. Just a question about those older engines. If you run them on unleaded do you need an additive or are they ok with straight fuel?

Medvedev is an alcoholic, he's rarely sober.

I get a bit of amusement watching these third world country handyman videos on YouTube. They're rough but inventive. This bloke made a worm gear by bending a round bar around a rod. If anyone is asking 'why would you bother going to all that trouble', it's the site income. With enough views, they can make a living in their country if they pump out heaps of videos like this one.

I see in that Salter Bros. link that in 1971 NV bought the manufacturing rights of Wisconsin engines. We had a Wisconsin on a grain auger years ago. I looked up some models and photos and my best guess is it was a 12.5 HP AGND model.

Petrol trucks seem a lifetime ago now. Then again, it almost is. In the early 70's I drove an AB series IH semi with a V8 petrol engine carting freight up from Brisbane. All the company's trucks were petrol except for one, a diesel Commer body truck. Petrol must have been relatively cheap back then.

A neighbour of mine had a Francis-Barnett 2 stroke bike and I'm fairly sure it was a Villiers engine. I can't remember what year it became NVT. I bought my Commando mid 1972 and I thought it was just Norton Villiers then, but I could be wrong, it might have had Triumph in it by then.

I've never had much to do with Norton Villiers engines but I saw this one on FB Marketplace and didn't know they were made in Ballarat. It looks very similar to an old BSA stationary engine I have in the shed.

After more than two and a half years of war, dithering old President Biden has finally given Ukraine permission to use long range ATACMS missiles on Russian territory. It's not clear whether the permission is restricted to the Kursk region or will be applied to other regions as well. Ukraine has fought the whole war with one hand tied behind it's back. The drip feed of supplies has cost a lot of time and lives. Having said that, it's hard to know how wasteful the Ukrainians would have been if they were given unlimited supplies of everything they wanted. It might have started a cargo cult mentality.

On the reverse side, the Americans apply a percentage ruling on their control over foreign manufacturing using American components. I forget the exact figure, somewhere around 10 or 15% maybe. The Iranians and Russians were once working on an idea to manufacture the Sukhoi Superjet under license in Iran and the Americans blocked it because of American components in the Sukhoi.