onetrack

Richard Bransons wife, Joan (nee Templeman), has passed away at age 80. The couple were set to mark their 50th wedding anniversary next year. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/nov/26/joan-templeman-wife-richard-branson-dies-aged-80

The video is a bit deceiving because there's no size reference or statistics. I'll wager that drone tank only holds 40 or 50 litres, water is bloody heavy! How long is 40 or 50 litres going to last, pressure-washing? I use elevated IBC's (1000 litre) for washing machines down, and you can easily use 500 litres of water just in a machine washdown.

In the latest vehicle crash tests, some Chinese EV's actually scored very highly. https://www.drive.com.au/news/new-chinese-ev-earn-top-marks-in-ancap-testing/

Red, the only "negative speed bump" FB news article that I can find, is from 2018 - and the news article says they were "being trialled". I have never seen these things in Perth, so I guess the trial was possibly an expensive flop. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10155643410529072

The Chinese have moved into Brazil with their EV's, in a big way. No doubt, this move ties in nicely with their huge purchases of Brazilian soybeans - all at the expense of America, and its manufacturers and farmers. So much for "Making America Great Again". America is starting to look like the worlds biggest loser, making all the wrong decisions, thanks to the utter economic incompetence of its BS-artist leader. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/11/22/cop-brazil-electric-vehicles-donald-trump-china-00665693

No-one gets any benefit from bottom-of-the-harbour schemes today, because the ATO nailed it for what it was - simple criminal activity designed to defeat tax collection. But plenty of people who are supposed to be "looked up to" today as "great entrepreneurs", only got their initial wealth via BoTH scheming. One well-known (now deceased) mining entrepeneur here in W.A. started a huge collection of "collectable" cars, and a car Museum in York (W.A.) thanks to his BoTH scheming and "unjust enrichment". He did serve a small jail term for his criminal scheming as regards tax avoidance, but he still won handsomely, monetarily. It goes without saying he was a close associate of W.A's greatest corporate scammer, who did go to jail for 5 years over his corporate crookedness. But surprise, surprise, he sprang back from his "bankruptcy" and 5 yr jail term with a very substantial level of assets, reputed to be nearly $300M, that he'd socked away in untouchable jurisdictions. Of course, his initials were AB, but I guess you all know that.

I think we should start a list of Trumps BS, hollow promises - but I fear it may take up too much room on the forum!

"Bottom of the Harbour" schemes worked brilliantly for a large number of mining scumbags in the 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's, until the ATO put a stop to it.

Ghislaines father Robert, the media baron, was crooked to the core, a liar and thief, and he died in highly suspicious circumstances, just like Epstein. They all made a good crooked bunch together. Maxwell and Trump behave identically, both abusive thugs, belittling people, liars to the core, and thieves to boot. Always trying to impress others with their "superiority" and levels of power. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/22/the-murky-life-and-death-of-robert-maxwell-and-how-it-shaped-his-daughter-ghislaine

At least the good news is - Marjorie Taylor Greene is resigning her seat. Good riddance to the horse-faced, rabid Christian Fundamentalist, conspiracy-peddling ratbag, who supported Trump all the way - until she fell out of favour with him, and is now on the receiving end of his vicious, abusive and belittling vengeance. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-22/marjorie-taylor-greene-resigns-after-trump-fallout/106040468

More Farcebook BS and Fake News. Totally fabricated rubbish.

Ah-HA! So the Flat Earthers are in the majority amongst the boaties?! Yeah, I'd hate to fall off the edge of the Earth, so I keep well back from it.

I trust the gun is a dud, too.

One of the few racing drivers who didn't suffer from overblown self-importance. Dementia is so rampant now, it's now one of the leading causes of death for aged people - 17,000 deaths from it last year, and only 12,000 from circulatory diseases.

Gee, couldn't you imagine giving a public machinery demonstration of farm equipment today, standing unrestrained, on the drawbar of a moving disc plough! The Worksafe inspectors would have kittens, and you'd be fined thousands!! One slip off that drawbar, and you'd be mincemeat in seconds. The farmer I rented a farmhouse off when I first started in agricultural contracting in 1964, had 5 dogs of various mongrel history, and they were always fighting amongst themselves. One day he was out ploughing with his trusty old Inter tractor and disc plough, with the dogs all running around the tractor and plough, as they always did. A couple of dogs started fighting, and one fell under the plough, as he tried to get away from the other dog! He came out the back of the plough, sliced up like pieces of ham! The farmer was a little bit upset, but he seemed to think most dogs were disposable, anyway. He was possibly upset because it meant more work for him rounding up sheep, next time he did it.

Nev, the cooling system is in quite satisfactory condition, and yes - that area is one of the first things I look at, it can be a very expensive repair trying to fix major cooling system damage. Copper/soldered radiators are priced like gold plate today, and you're struggling to find anyone to repair them, the Workplace Health authorities have deemed soldering to be a major workplace health risk. Yes, Chamberlains started off with their own 2 cylinder horizontally-opposed kerosine engine, then they converted the design to diesel, and it wasn't reliable, due to regular engine failures. So Chamberlain then decided to employ outside engine manufacturers. They went over to GM 2 stroke diesels, which were a roaring success, but GM diesels became expensive to buy in AU dollars, so Chamberlain then went to Meadows, an English engine manufacturer. The Meadows engines were just O.K., but their performance was lacking, and the engines had various problems. So Chamberlain then went over to Perkins and never looked back. Perkins engines were so popular and reliable and produced in large numbers, so Caterpillar decided to buy the company, which they did in 1997, and it has been owned by Cat ever since, and Cat-Perkins engines power a lot of the smaller Caterpillar equipment.

I just bought another tractor to add to my collection of restoration projects. A Chamberlain C6100, complete with a Gason cab and front end loader - and all for $1100. I'm positive it will make my retirement even busier. Oh, it does have a buggered engine, the venerable old Perkins 6-354, so that's not such a positive thing. The previous idiot owner/s left it out in the weather for years, and rainwater rotted out the muffler, and water ran through it into the engine, and it's locked up. However, at $1100, one has to expect a few downsides. Another downside appears to be the number of empty Aerostart cans I found on the floor when I was cleaning out the 40 or 50 years of accumulated dirt, general trash, rags, dog bones, etc. I guess this is an indicator that the engine wasn't in too good a shape, prior to it being abandoned. Poor old girl, these were great tractors, but some people should never be allowed to own machinery.

When I got my bike licence, the local copper came up to my workshop yard, asked me to do a few figure-eights on my 250cc Honda CM250, and after watching me for about 30 seconds, he said, "Come up to the station, and I'll write out your endorsement"! That was 1982, and I got a totally unlimited motorcycle licence from that! So I rode bikes up to 1100cc with that licence all through the 1980's, then I gave up bike riding when I met SWMBO in 1990, because she hated them, and had been previously told by some psychic, that someone close to her would be badly injured in a motorbike crash. However, the psychic was wrong - at least for the last 40 years. Then, sometime in the late 90's or early 2000's, the local licencing authority split bike licences into under 250cc and over 250cc (with a need for intensive testing for a bigger cc licence), and my licence was downgraded! - despite the fact I rode bigger bikes for years! Some bureaucrat obviously decided I was still a learner, and I'd have to sit the big bike course and testing!! I haven't bothered to, I'm well past my "motorbike stage" of life. They are bloody dangerous things, and the greatest risk is from car and truck drivers who treat you like a second-class road user. And animals on the loose are a real threat to you on a bike. I hit a 'roo at about 80 kays on the Honda, but I managed to stay upright, while I cartwheeled the 'roo!

I think it's pretty important that you understand your capabilities and limitations as you age, and make sure you take that into account, when carrying out strenuous and risky trips. And a lot of unfit people don't seem to realise their limitations in those respects, too. The number of people having to be rescued from hikes and adventures, seems to be increasing recently.

My sense of self-preservation far exceeds any desire to carry out a dangerous "nerve test". It's a policy that has served me well in more than 76 years. Just travelling on public highways today with the rest of the ill-trained and undisciplined road users, is enough of a regular "nerve test" for me.

It never ceases to amaze me that tourists get within a metre of huge cliffs without anything to stop them being blown off the edge - yet if you worked anywhere within 20 metres of that drop, Worksafe would make you wear a hardhat, safety specs, a safety harness, and they'd also require another person to be on standby watching for you potentially making a mistake. I can recall a woman falling off the edge at one of the clifftop whale-watching areas along the Bight in Western S.A. and Eastern W.A. in recent years. Those Bight cliff edges are particularly dangerous, and only a few spots have railings. A gust of wind can come out of nowhere, and send you straight over the edge.

It's sorted. We're gonna organise a Social Australia Forum, all-members meetup, at Port Stephens Marina next month. Just have to set the day, and have Litespeed let us know the name of his boat, so we can all meet up on his deck. 😄

I could never envisage calling 6°C or 7°C warm!! To me, those kind of temperatures are bloody freezing!! It's currently a very pleasant 34°C here, and a mild week ahead with temperatures drifting down, and the chance of some thunderstormy showers. https://www.farmonlineweather.com.au/place/wa/perth/6000/forecast Interestingly, since it's warmed up here (from the start of the month roughly), I've seen a lot more bikers out and about. The Harleys rule on the highways, what they lack in ride comfort, they make up for in noise. 😄

We've nearly got to that point now, with the Liberals and Nationals and other minor parties all just becoming "also-rans", and providing no viable opposition to the ruling Labor Party. When I was a youngster, the Opposition was strong and constantly hammering the party in power over their gaffes and missteps and poor decisions. Now, we get some feeble attempts by Opposition parties at trying to score a hit on Labor errors, while these minor parties spend a huge amount of time infighting, swapping members, having standing members depart at a whim, and generally being bloody useless. Bring back some political Statesmanship (or Stateswomanship). We have hundreds of useless politicians and hardly a Statesman or a Stateswoman amongst them. What's the difference between a politician and a Statesman or a Stateswoman? The first makes decisions only on what's good for their Party, their Lobbyists, or their own personal gain - a Statesman or a Stateswoman makes decisions, and produces future plans, based on what is good for the Nation in the long-term.

The problem is, so many sleazy disinformation and fake sites don't trip a lot of AV programmes, because they don't contain malware or phishing links, they just peddle crap to get clicks and views, and suck in advertisers, so they can make money.